


Finding a Home

by Infinity_Skye



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-17
Packaged: 2018-08-08 19:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 35
Words: 24,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7770130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infinity_Skye/pseuds/Infinity_Skye
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every year on April 11th, Natasha and Clint take a “personal” day.  No one knows why or what for.  Everyone just knows not to object and not to ask why.  The only person who ever knew is dead.  Or so Natasha and Clint thought.  That all changed one Wednesday in July.  *ON HIATUS*</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Finding a Home

Disclamer: I don't own any of the characters

OoO

Every year on April 11th, Natasha and Clint take a “personal” day. No one knows why or what for. Everyone just knows not to object and not to ask why. The only person who ever knew is dead. Or so Natasha and Clint thought. That all changed one Wednesday in July.

OoO

Ever since she could remember Skye had looked for her parents, and always she had wondered why. Why they had ever given her up. She never had a family. She never got attached to anyone, she learned that after a few dozen foster homes gave her up. That all changed when she meet Miles. Skye had thought she had found someone, though in the end he ended up being exactly like the rest, he led her to who she now thought of as family. Miles had led her to Shield. Skye loved her life as a Shield agent, even though she acted like she hated training, the schedule, the rules, Skye knew that she was one step closer to finding her parents. It was Shield who redacted the only file she could find one her parents. It was Shield who had caused her to come to dead in after dead in. And now she was Shield. Skye was closer than ever. 

OoO

Skye had asked him weeks ago to look into a redacted file. It was a file that he knew all too well, it was the file that he himself had signed. He knew that he would have to make the call. 

OoO

It was a normal Wednesday in the Avengers tower, or at least normal for a group of superheroes. It was one of the rare days that no one needed saving. Bruce and Tony were in their respective labs, and Steve had gone to see the WWII memorial, and Natasha and Clint were sparing. It was a pretty close match, and it probably would’ve continued had Clint’s phone not rung.  
“Barton,” Clint said professionally.  
“Hello, this is Phil, Phil Coulson.”


	2. She's Dead

Clint contemplated what he had just been told by a dead man for hours. Finally, he decided to just to tell her straightforward.   
“Natasha…”  
“I’m sleeping”  
“I found her”  
That immediately got her awake. “What are you talking about. That’s impossible. Our daughter is dead.” Natasha shot down his comment quickly.   
“Clint,” she said softly, “I know you miss her, and I also know you are willing to grab onto anything. Clint, Lillya is dead.”  
Clint knew this would be hard, especially after all the times he had thought he had found her. But Clint knew this was real. It had to be. After Coulson had explained Fury moving heaven and earth to find him, Coulson told Clint that he had his Lillya.  
“I talked to Coulson”  
“Oh, he finally came out about his death”  
Not bothering to question how Nat knew about Coulson, he said, “He has her, she wants to meet us.”   
“Does she know who we are?”  
“He didn’t say. Please Nat, just one meeting with our girl. Then you never have to see her again.” In his heart, Clint knew that Nat wanted to see her just as badly as he did, but after getting hope time after time just to get it crushed, he knew she didn’t want to get hurt again.  
“Fine, just one meeting”


	3. They Just Want to Meet You

“Skye, they said they wanted to meet you,” Coulson had just gotten off the phone with Clint.  
“Sir, you still haven't told me who ‘they’ are”  
“Skye, do you know who Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton are?”  
“You mean as in the Black Widow and Hawkeye?”  
Suddenly, the young agent starts crying, not bothering to try to hide it, she runs out of his office, and into her bunk.  
At that moment Ward, Fitz, and Simmons come up the stairs, from another night, night gun test, just in time to see Skye running to her bunk, tears streaming down her face. Simmons quickly runs to her close friends’ bunk, Ward stomps up to Coulson’s office to demand why his girlfriend is in tears, and poor Fitz just stands there confused with the recent events.  
“Skye… It’s me, Jemma”  
“Go away” She manages to get out between sobs.  
“Please, just let me in,” Simmons beg. She hears the door unlock.  
When she walks in, she quickly assesses the scene. Simmons quickly realizes that Skye is not just crying, but having a full on panic attack.   
“Skye!” She says quickly moving to her friend, “Breath, follow my breathing, in and out.”  
Once the danger was over, Jemma pulled a water bottle out from under Skye’s bed, why she kept food there was beyond her, “Here, drink this”  
Skye looked up with her red eyes and took the bottle thankfully.  
“Thanks, I haven’t had one in years,” Skye said  
“What happened Skye”  
“He, he told me my parents wanted to meet me”   
“Your parents”  
“Yes, Black Widow and Hawkeye”  
“The Avengers?”  
“Yep, that’s them”  
“Skye, they probably just want to meet you. You have been looking for them your whole life. You deserve to see them. They deserve to meet you. To see the strong woman you have become. So what their names are famous, would it be any different if you didn’t know who they were?”  
“Jemma, I’m scared, what if they don’t like me”  
“Skye, they are going to love you."  
After one last good cry, Skye told Simmons that she needed to talk to Coulson, when she walked into his office she found him and Ward in a heated argument. Both men looked at her when she walked in.  
“Grant, I need to talk to AC… alone”  
After he left, Skye sat down and asked, where do they want to meet?”


	4. Meet the Parents

“Nat, today we are going to see her,” Clint had been trying to coax Natasha out of bed for half an hour.   
“I know,” said Natasha  
“Then why aren’t you getting up”  
“What if she doesn’t want to see us, what if she hates us?”  
“Tasha we will never know unless we go see her.”  
“I know,” Natasha repeated, “I know.”  
When they got to the cafe, both of them paused for a second, then took the leap and walked in. They saw her immediately, she was in a booth in the far, back corner. Their Lillya was just feet away from them, yet they couldn’t seem to close the gap.

 

OoO

After slipping away from her team with the excuse that she had some old friends that she wanted to meet, Skye found herself sitting in the back of a cafe in New York. Waiting for Natasha and Clint to arrive, she found herself thinking about how many times she had imagined this moment, how many nights she had cried herself to sleep, wishing that had her parents to hold her. Now she was about to face the very people she had dreamt so much about. While she waited she checked her phone while scanning the cafe for threats. After about three minutes of doing this, her eyes fell on them, deciding to be bold, she walked up to them and said, “I have a table in the back.” Neither party wanted to speak. Knowing that she would have to break the ice, she said, “Hi, I’m Skye”  
“Skye,” Natasha muttered to herself, “Skye,” she repeated.  
“I just want to know, why did you give me up?” The young agent asked, once again deciding to go straight to the point.   
“We, we thought you were dead Lil-Skye,” Clint tried to explain, still trying to comprehend that he was sitting across to his long lost daughter.   
“You thought I was dead,” Skye said in disbelief.  
“We never meant to give you up, you were taken in the dead of night,” Natasha spoke for the first time.  
“So you mean to tell me that someone was able to slip past the Black Widow and Hawkeye”  
“We don’t know how it was possible, we had just put you to sleep when we heard a noise in your room. We rushed in to see a man with you in his arms. Then he disappeared, from thin air,” Clint tried to describe the situation.   
“Gordon,” Skye muttered to herself.  
“Who?” Natasha and Clint asked  
“He was an inhuman, he always gave me food when the nuns didn’t,” Skye said not realizing that she had just revealed a part of her life.  
“You mean, this whole time you grew up in an orphanage?” Natasha asked.  
“St. Agnes Orphanage,” she said.  
The finally reunited family talked for awhile until Skye said she had to leave.  
“Did that just happen?” Natasha asked her husband quietly.  
“I think so.”


	5. Where Have You Been

When Skye returned from her trip, she was met with Fitz and Simmons arguing. Something about the physics of telekinesis. Both suddenly stopped talking when they saw Skye. Simmons, the only one out of the two who knew about who she was meeting, was worried how things went. Fitz still had not been told was just worried about the girl that he viewed as a younger sister.   
“Where have you been?” Ward said from behind her. Ward would be lying if he said that he was annoyed that he didn’t know where his unofficial girlfriend had gone.  
“Well you see-” Skye began. But she was interrupted by Coulson who said there was a team meeting. “Saved by the bell,” the hacktivist said with a grin.  
“Hey, I just want to know what’s going on,” Ward said to Skye as they walked up. They were the last ones to come to the meeting.   
“Now that we’re all here,” Coulson threw a pointed look at Skye and Ward, “we can begin. Because of the current nature of our missions currently, SHIELD has decided that our team doesn't have enough agents trained for combat. Therefore ,he is sending agents Romanoff and Barton. Effective immediately,” Coulson revealed, simply stretching the truth a little. The truth was that Natasha and Clint had requested to join their team while they were hunting down Centipede, it was also true that SHIELD was going to add more combat trained agents to the team anyway.   
Skye who had turned very pale, squeaked out, “what?”  
“I said that Agents Romanoff and Barton will join our team, for how long I don't know,” Coulson replied.   
“Where are we meeting them?” May asked.  
“They will be meeting us here on the bus later today,” Coulson replied seeming to have all the answers.  
“Okay, can we go now…” Skye asked, just wanting to leave.   
“Yes, the briefing is now concluded.”  
Skye immediately went to her bunk to try to come to terms that her parents were coming to live with them. She had so many questions like did they want to be here, did they ask to be placed on the team, if so how much did Coulson stretch the truth. Her thoughts began to go a million miles a second, her breathing became erratic.   
Ward who still wanted to finish their conversation followed Skye to her bunk. When he opened the door he saw Skye gasping for air, he also noticed that his rookie’s eyes had a dazed look in her eyes. His expert mind quickly supplied “panic attack.” Knowing what to do he was able to talk her through the attack. Once Skye had calmed down she said, “I just found them, and now they are coming to live with us,” Ward being completely confused just listened. She continued, “I mean I’ve been looking for them my whole life and suddenly they just appear. I’m not sure if I’m ready.”   
Something in Ward’s brain must have clicked because he said, “Are Agents Romanoff and Barton your parents?”   
“Yes,” Skye whispered like she was telling a secret.   
“So that’s where you were yesterday? Meeting them.”   
She just nodded.  
“Skye” Ward didn’t know what to say, there was a reason that he was marked with so low of people skills, but he somehow managed to say the right words, “you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, but show them who you have become. Show them the strong and independent person you have become,” Ward said, sounding very similar to what Simmons had said.  
Skye sat in silence for awhile, letting the words sink in until Fitz came in and said, “Guys they're here.”


	6. They’re Here

Natasha and Clint stood outside the Bus. Both wondering how their daughter would react to the fact that her long lost parents were moving in with her. Especially considering that they just met the day before. So as the couple entered the bus they took in the scene. First, they saw Coulson.   
“Nat, Clint,” Coulson greeted, “Its been too long.”  
“Says the person who was dead,” Clint fired back. Clint would be lying to say that he didn’t blame himself for Coulson’s death.  
“Sir,” Natasha greeted Coulson formal as ever.  
At this point, the whole team had made their way down to greet the assassins who would be living with them for an indefinite time- minus Skye and Ward.   
“Hello, this is Fitz,” Simmons introduced Fitz.  
“And this is Simmons,” Fitz said pointing to Simmons.  
“Oh you're the famous FItzSimmons that I’ve heard so much about,” Clint complimented, Natasha just nodded.  
Then May came out of the shadows and Clint and Natasha both gasped, “Mel, is that you?” Clint asked.  
“First don’t call me that, second good it’s to see you too,” May replied sarcasm dripping from every word.   
Natasha just went up and hugged her old friend. “I thought I would never see you,” she whispered to May.   
The FitzSimmons just looked shocked as they watched the exchange. Timing good as ever, Skye and Ward came down the stairs just at that moment.   
“Agent Romanoff, agent Barton, it’s an honor to meet you,” Ward said.  
“Agent Ward, I’ve only heard good things,” Clint said shaking his hand.  
When their daughter came down Natasha noticed a few things. She observed how Skye almost hid behind Ward, and her stance. Her stance was one of defense, screaming that she didn’t want them there. Yet she still greeted the two without a hint of her true emotion showing.  
“Romanoff, Barton, it’s good to see you again,” Skye said.   
“Good to see you too, how have you been?” Natasha said, hiding the pain she felt. After all, that is what she had been trained to do.  
“I’ve been well, except for Ward waking me up at dawn.”  
Clint knew a lie when he saw one, and this was most definitely a lie. Sure, she was a good actress, most people would have never picked it up, but Clint knew. He looked at Natasha and shared a look. It was going to be a long road ahead.


	7. Lillya Natalia Barton

After the extremely awkward greetings, Natasha marched Coulson up the stairs and into his office. Somehow knowing where it was.  
“What the hell are you thinking?” Natasha demanded.  
“What are you talking about?” Coulson asked, honestly confused as it could be a number of things.   
“Why is May back in the field? Do you even remember how she was after? Did you even give her a choice?” Natasha fumed.  
“Nat, you and I both know she wouldn’t do anything she didn’t want to do.”  
“But you and I both know how she would do anything for you if you were putting yourself in danger,” Natasha fired back, “And why did you tell us that Lil-Skye wanted to see us?” Coulson had been waiting for the question. Technically Clint and Nat asked to join the team, but only after he had fed them little white lies.  
“That’s what I thought,” Natasha said after a moment of silence.   
“Phil, I want to know her.” She said suddenly, “Tell me about her.”  
“Natasha, first, I didn’t know that she was Lillya until she showed me the redacted document a few weeks ago. Second, you will get to know her. She’s had a hard life. That’s all I can say without losing her trust.” Natasha nodded.  
They walked out of the office to see Ward and Skye playing battleship, well more like Skye winning… but Natasha couldn’t help but smile a little. Both older agents suddenly realised that May and Clint were not present, knowing what that meant, they rushed down to the sparring mats. When they got down, they found Clint and May pretty evenly matched. Currently, though, May had Clint in a thigh hold around Clint’s neck.  
“Do you yield?” May asked.  
“I yield,” Clint said easily.   
At this point, the whole team had gathered and was watching the strange interaction.  
“While we are all here, I just want you to know that Natasha, Clint, and Skye will be doing a supply run tomorrow, so get your lists in within the next few hours,” Coulson announced.

OoO

After yet another one of Coulson’s surprise announcements, the younger agents went to the lab to hang out while the group of old friends caught up. Before she knew it, it was the next day. Natasha, Clint and Skye were just pulling up to an all-purpose store.   
“I’ll get Jemma, Fitz and Ward’s things, I’ll meet you at the register,” Skye said, even though she knew that the probably of them letting her go on her own was slim.  
“I think it would be better to stay together,” Clint said.  
Rolling her eyes, the three of them started shopping. First they went to the produce section of the store. All three of the agents were looking around the store for any threats.   
“So do you want to talk to her, or do I need to?” asked Natasha. Taking his silence to mean that she needed to talk, the assassin walked up to Skye and said, “ask me anything, and I’ll tell you the truth”  
“For a trained assassin, you’re not that great at being subtle,” Skye said. Natasha had to laugh at that.   
“Okay, fine, what did you name me?” Skye asked.  
“Lillya Natalia Barton,” Clint said, “We named you Lillya Natalia Barton.”  
“Before I worked for SHIELD I was named Natalia Alianovna,” Natasha answered the unspoken question.   
“And where did the name Lillya come from?”  
“You were named after the bravest person I’ve ever known,” Natasha said ending the question.  
They continued doing this, Skye asking questions and then Natasha and Clint answering as best they could. When they got back to the Bus Clint couldn’t help but to look at Natasha and say, “I think that was a success.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Skye's name Lillya is pronounced lil-lee-ah. The name is Russian, and I just wanted to clear up any confusion that may have occurred.


	8. What's Wrong

“Hey I put your things in your bunk,” Skye announced as she walked into the lab.   
“So how did it go?” Jemma asked, straight to the point.  
“It was just shopping…” She said.  
“But come on, didn't you learn anything?” Fitz asked.   
“They told me my name, like my real name. I was named Lillya, Lillya Natalia Barton,” Skye said, not realizing that she was grinning.  
“It sounds like it was a successful trip,” Ward said walking in.  
“Yeah... I think it was.”

OoO

Later that day, Skye and Simmons were on cooking duty with Ward and Fitz “helping”.   
“So what are we making again?” Skye asked again for the fourth time.  
“I told you, we’re making chicken pot pie.”  
“I sorry, I just never got much cooking experience when living in my van, plus after last time, I’m surprised that Coulson is even letting me help.”  
“That was a funny time.”  
“Yeah tell that to Coulson,” Skye muttered under her breath.  
“So what happened again?” Ward asked.  
“Well you see, I was cooking pasta, and then out of nowhere the stove caught on fire.”  
“It just caught on fire.”  
“Yes,” she said with a deadpan look.  
“I’m afraid that she gets her cooking skills from me,” Clint said walking in.  
“Yeah, he couldn’t cook a solid meal if his life depended on it,” Natasha added as she walked in.  
“So what, I mean if it weren't for you showing me up all the time. Some people would actually call me a decent cook.   
“Sure, whatever. I’m just remembering that time I got food poisoning in Dubai,” Natasha said.  
“That was, twelve years ago.”  
“So?”  
“I’m just saying, I think you have a grudge problem.”  
“What grudge did you bring up this time?” May said walking in the kitchen.  
“Dubai,” Clint said dejected.  
“Oh, that was a funny one, except for all the paperwork,” Coulson said frowning at the memory.  
Skye, who had been watching the interaction like a tennis match asked, “so were you guys like a team or something…?”  
The senior agents looked at each other then started laughing, “we here the best,” Natasha stated not bothering to be humble.  
“We were Strike Team Delta at its finest,” Clint said.  
“What happened?” Skye asked curiously.  
The four looked at one another again, “Bahrain,” May said, her eyes glazed over.  
“Dinner is ready,” Simmons said after a moment of awkward silence.   
“It looks good, thank you Jemma.”

OoO

After a meal full of laughter, jokes, and many stories exchanged, the team separated to their individual bunks. It was 2:00 am and Skye was knocking on her best friends door.   
“Skye, what's wrong,” Simmons asked the minute she saw her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, I know that the next few chapters are very similar to charmed4lifekaren's Her Story Started Here, and I understand that some may want to stop reading. I respect that decision, but the next chapters change the plot in a different way than her's do. Thank you for reading.


	9. Who is it?

Simmons had never seen her friend so scared. She was shaking like a leaf. After she saw her friend, she saw her clutching her laptop to her chest.  
“What’s on the computer?”  
“I got this a few hours ago”  
Simmons quickly read through the email. She could easily see how this was scaring her, but she still had to ask, “Skye who is Emma?”  
“She, she was my best friend…”  
“And now this person says that they will kill her if you don’t do what they say, who is it? All it says is you owe me.” But Simmons didn’t get an answer, because she saw that Skye had found her onto the floor and was rocking back and forth. Knowing that she had no power to help her friend, Simmons got up to get the big guns.  
“Agent Romanoff,” Simmons said knocking on the world's deadliest assassin.  
“What is it Simmons?” the redhead asked not opening her eyes.  
“It’s Skye,” that got her awake.   
“Is she hurt,” she asked   
“Not exactly, you need to see it”  
Careful not to wake up her partner, Natasha followed Simmons to her bunk.  
“She’s in there.”  
The minute that Natasha saw Skye, she knew that Simmons had done the right thing.  
“Skye, what is it?’’ In response Skye simply turned her computer so that she could read the note for herself. After reading it she asked the same questions the Simmons had, “Who sent the note?”  
“Miles”  
“Who’s Miles, he was my ex-boyfriend, and I kinda betrayed the team by sleeping with him…”  
“I heard about that”  
“Do you think I’m a slut?”   
“I could never think that of you”  
“How?”  
Natasha thought about it for a fraction of a second then said what she thought she could never say, “Because I love you”


	10. Miles

“Team meeting now!” Coulson who had just been alerted of the situation roared.  
“Bloody hell what’s the problem that couldn’t wait till morning,” Fitz mumbled as he poured himself a cup of tea.  
Once everyone had made their way up, Natasha said, “At 2:34 am, Skye got an email from Miles,” holding up her hand to stop the questions she continued, “it seems that he has a civilian hostage who he will kill unless we do exactly what he says.”  
“Which is what?” May asked.  
“He wants Skye to come to a warehouse, alone, at 2pm today.”  
“Where?” Ward asked.  
“Amarillo, Texas”  
“She can’t go,” Ward protested.  
“It’s a trap,” Clint added.  
“She has to, there is a civilian life on the line,” Coulson said.  
“Oh, so you're for her walking straight into a trap?” Clint said mockingly.  
“She can where a tracker”  
“I need to go,” Skye said quietly, “I have to go, Emma’s life is on the line. Plus I still have a good 10 hours to learn some basic escape moves.”  
“You do realize that you are going to walk into a trap, don’t you?”   
“But I’ll have a tracker the whole time. Fitz and Simmons have been working own a new one right?”  
“Yes, that’s right,” Simmons said.  
“It should be completely intractable,” Fitz added.

OoO

10 hours later 

OoO

“Again,” Ward said tying Skye’s hands behind her with zip-ties. He watched as she twisted her wrist to break free. After showing her how to break free from rope, handcuffs and fishing twine, Skye still couldn’t manage zip-ties.  
“Skye it’s okay. Don’t hurt yourself.”  
“But what if…”  
“If something is to happen I’m confident that you will be able to manage.”  
“Oh good, Skye, we have the tracker ready,” Simmons said brightly. Skye went over to the table let Simmons inject the tracker in her arm.   
“The tracker sits right below the skin unless you’re looking for it, no one should be able to detect it.” Skye just nodded.  
“You ready?” Natasha said as she came down the stairs.  
“Yep,” Skye said popping the “p”  
“Just remember to not lose your head out there.”  
“Skye, it’s time,” May said.  
“Just remember to think everything through,” Ward reminded her.

OoO

As Skye walked a mile to the location, she thought about everything that had been going on in her life. First her long lost parents turn up, then it's revealed that Coulson and May knew them, and now this. She thought bitterly. When she reached the warehouse she noticed a few things. One there seemed to be no sign of anyone. Two the warehouse was cracked open. Carefully she walked in. She couldn’t help but gasp. On the ground was a body sitting in a pool of blood. She ran up to the body. To see who it was.  
“Miles!”


	11. Tracker

Before she could even think about what she was seeing, someone grabbed her from behind. While struggling to get free, Skye jerked her body up and over in attempt to knock the man over. Suddenly, heard a loud crack. Not being able to move her leg,the man made, roughly 6’4 from what she could guess, made quick work of dragging and tying Skye to a chair. She was unable to see who the man was, but she watched as he took a rather wicked knife, and cut her exactly where her tracker was. With tweezers, he gingerly removed the small device and proceeded to drop it, and smash it was his boot. She was so concentrated on her now destroyed tracker to notice that the man had crept up behind her.   
He gave her a hard hit to the head. Smiling a little when the girl slumped over.

OoO

Back on the Bus

OoO

“Sir, we just lost the tracker,” Fitz said panicked.  
“Shit,” Coulson said, “Simmons, May, Natasha go to the location and check things out. Fitz begin scanning all cameras within a 200-mile radius of the warehouse. Clint, Ward go to the airport and put it on lockdown, by any means necessary. Go! Go! Go!” Everyone quickly sprang into action. Within five minutes everyone except for Simmons and Fitz was in full tact gear, and on their way out. 

OoO

Classified location

OoO

When Skye opened her eyes, the first thing she noticed was how cold it was. Next she saw that her arm had a bandage around it where they had cut her tracker out. She also was now wearing a metal cuff on her wrist. Now that she was alone, she assessed her injuries. From what she could tell, her left leg was broken and she had a few bruises, but nothing serious. The room had a small window, eight feet off the ground, so that was not an option for an escape. But there were pipes hanging on the ceiling. But first she had to deal with the task at hand, getting out of the zip-ties.  
“Shit, why did it have to be zip-ties?” She muttered to herself. She tried was on her third attempt to break them when the door opened.   
“Hello, Skye.”


	12. Did You Know?

“Hello Skye,” said none other than Ian Quinn, “It’s been too long. I’m so proud of who you have become,” watching her shocked face, “yes, I know none of this makes sense, but whatever really does.”  
“What the hell are you talking about?” Skye asked, tugging against the restraints.  
“I wouldn’t do that if I was you. Oh, you must be wondering what that is, it’s a bracelet, much like the one you were, it blocks all location finding devices.”  
“What do you want?”  
“Oh! Didn’t your parents,” he sneered the word, “didn’t they ever tell you, that you are special, that you are more. Of course they never did. They wouldn’t, they were too sad, moping around after they lost you. Did you know that he even tried to take his life after?”  
“I don’t believe you.” She was starting to think Quinn was telling her things she wasn’t supposed to know.   
Looking at his watch, Quinn suddenly realized the time, “Nice chat Skye, but I have to go.” 

Going back to her task of trying to undo the zip-ties, she thought about what he said, did Clint really try to take his life? What had Gordon done to her? Was he Quinn’s boss? Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the zip-ties breaking. Quickly, she untied her feet and stretched out. Already having checked for cameras, Skye walked silently to the door. Fishing a bobby pin out of her bra, suggested by May, she quickly undid the lock. Cracking the door open, she saw two centipede soldiers standing out the door and a large window behind them. Coming up with a plan, left the door slightly open, and then waited for the someone to come again. About twenty minutes later two soldiers came in with a plate of what she assumed was food. She had heard them coming and stood, waiting on the chair. When they came in, she quickly jumped up, grabbed the pipe hanging from the ceiling, and then kicked both soldiers at once. Jumping down, she ran out of the room, locking the soldiers in the room and ran to the window. Knowing that the door was just a minor obstacle for them, she just ran to the window and jumped. Falling about three stories, she braced herself for the impact. Landing with a crunch of her wrist, she ran. The cold air biting her lungs, she ran until she reached a city.   
All her years living in a van finally paid off. She was able to pick-pocket enough  
people to understand she was not in the US. Using someone’s phone she had got she dialed the number Natasha had given her.  
“Mom.”


	13. Welcome Wagon

The bus had been frantically looking for Skye. After going to the warehouse and finding none other than Miles, and a pool of blood they were scanning every camera in the world. Hoping that their face recognition program would pick up something.   
On the third day, everyone was looking defeated. Clint was taking it the worst of them all. Leaning over to Natasha he said, “We just found her, now she’s gone again.”  
She was about to reply when her phone started to ring, the phone that no one but Clint, Phil, Melinda, and now Skye had the number to, “Mom?” she heard Skye ask. Quickly, she turned the phone on speaker phone and motioned to everyone that Skye was on.

OoO

“Mom,” Skye asked. Natasha didn’t know how to react to being called Mom, but knowing that she needed to strong she quickly asked Skye, “where are you, are you hurt?”  
“I don’t know where I am, all I know is it is colder, maybe 54 degrees outside. The sun is starting to set, and there is no clear currency. I have lots of euros, American dollars, and pounds.” Skye answered, completely avoiding the second question, “You won’t be able to trace the phone because Quinn put an anti-location finding bracelet on me.”   
“Skye, change your clothes, steal the money if you have to, but don’t steal the clothes,” Clint said.  
“Skye, find higher ground,” Ward chimed in.  
“Guys, I really have to ditch this phone. Bye!”  
“Skye trust no one!” 

“Guys she is in Belgium,” Fitz said  
“How did you find that?” Coulson asked.  
“Based on the description she gave.”   
“Start scanning those cameras specifically, Nat, who are you calling?”  
“Maria, she is stationed in France.”

Just as Clint, Natasha, and Ward told her to do, Skye began looking for a shop. Seeing one that was in English, she went to it.  
“We’re closing up soon, but feel free to look,” the woman said at the store.  
“Thanks” Skye began looking, seeing the first rack in her size, she grabbed a pair of jeans, a flowered tank top, and a jean jacket. She quickly paid and changed in the dressing room. Looking in the mirror, she saw a lot of little pieces of glass poking out of her abdomen. Deciding to leave them be, she quickly changed. After her little shopping trip, Skye found an apartment building with ten stories. After climbing up the stairs, Skye positioned herself at the top of the stairs so that she could see anyone who came. Leaning against the wall, her leg began to throb. Without all the adrenaline, she was in quite a lot of pain. Just as she was starting to relax, she heard heavy footsteps coming up the stairs.  
“Hello, my name is Maria Hill, you are safe now,” the woman said.  
“I was told not to trust anyone.”  
“I know, and I was told that you would say that, even though I am the welcome wagon, Lillya.”  
Her saying that triggered a memory when she had told Ward about being a welcome wagon, plus her name…  
“Oh good,” Skye began to say, as she dropped to the ground, unconscious.


	14. Can’t Change the Past

Skye was at Shield’s France base. Sitting by her side was none other than Maria Hill. Maria saw the girl begin to wake and quickly organized what she was going to say. Skye’s arm suddenly jerked upward and her eyes opened, terror in her eyes.   
“Skye, my name is Maria Hill, you are currently safe,” Maria began telling Skye the standard information that Shield told it’s unconscious patients after waking up, as they were often confused. She continued, “You are at a Shield base in France. Your left wrist and ankle were broken in your escape. In addition, we had extract glass from your lower abdomen. Because of the severity, the doctors want to keep you here for another two days,” the deputy director concluded.   
Throughout Maria’s whole speech, Skye just sat there, mute, “Where are my parents?” she asked, not even thinking about the fact that she used the p word.   
“They are currently on their way here, you should get some rest, they might be awhile,” she said only lying a little bit.  
Nodding reluctantly, Skye let the drugs pull her under again. 

OoO

Natasha and Clint with the rest of the team, came running into the base. Quickly going through security, they were greeted by Maria and Fury.   
“Ma’am, Sir, where is she?” Clint demanded to know.  
“She is currently sleeping, I just spoke to her and because of the drugs still in the system, she fell back asleep,” Maria answered.  
“Plus, I wanted to talk to you,” Fury added.  
“Do you want us to come?” Coulson asked his friend.  
“Just you and Mel,” Natasha murmured.   
Looking at each other, Natasha and Clint followed the director and Hill into his office with May and Coulson following behind. Leaving a confused Fitz, Simmons, and Ward behind.   
“Secure office,” Fury said out loud. Instantly, the windows and doors were covered and bolted, they all heard the sound of the cameras clicking off.  
“What is so important, that you have to secure the room?” Natasha growled.  
“It’s about Skye,” He simply stated. “And before you ask a bunch of questions, let me talk first, then you can. When your daughter came onto this base I had her blood tested, for everything,” he said pausing, “Her DNA has an unknown marker in,” jumping right into the point, “and we know it’s not from you,” he added for Natasha.  
Maria began explaining, “We believe that when she was taken, according to the records, she was 4 months old when she was taken, but about a year old when she was dropped off at the orphanage. That’s about 8 months where anything could have happened. But when she was taken, we think that whoever took her, changed her DNA.”  
“But does she have my serum?” Natasha asked.  
“Well, because your serum doesn’t show up in blood tests, we can’t be certain, but there are strong pieces of evidence that suggest so,” Fury stated.  
“Like what?” Clint asked as Natasha simply raised an eyebrow.  
“Well for one, when she got to base, her bones had already begun to heal. We had use double the amount of anesthetics to work, her metabolism burnt through the drugs so quickly. But because of the unknown factor of her DNA nothing is certain…”  
“Is that all? Is that everything you have to tell us. Can we go see our daughter now?” Clint demanded.  
Sighing, “No, there is one more thing,” Natasha just raised an eyebrow, “after she got out of surgery, I went to attach this to her medical file, it was well hidden. I only found one copy, I think Skye had kept it for herself…”  
“Nick, just spit it out,” Natasha said getting frustrated.  
“It would be better for you to look at.”   
Fury handed the assassin and the archer the rather thick file. Melinda and Coulson who had stayed quiet the whole time, understanding that this was not their place to speak, went up peered at the file. The four gasped when they saw what was inside. There were dozens of documents. Almost as many as they had themselves. They began to slowly look through it, afraid to invade Skye’s privacy, but curiosity got the better of them. Each file had different x-rays. It seemed that she had broken every bone in her body. Some of the documents even had pictures of her and her injury. Clint picked one up. There was a picture, of a very young Skye, no older than nine years old with a nasty black eye. Though in the picture you could still see a sparkle in her eye. There was a caption under it that read. ‘Mary Sue Poots, preferred name Skye. Age 9. Periorbital hematoma on the left side. Suspected abuse.’ They flipped to another page, this time, she looked about eleven, but this time, her eyes were hardened. In the same handwriting as the other photo ‘...three broken ribs and a punctured lung’ and the file went on and on. Natasha and Clint scanned that documents until Natasha saw something that caught her eye. ‘Mary Sue Poots, preferred name Skye. Age 16, the victim was found in her foster family's basement. Police searched the Covey’s basement after a neighbor called in saying they heard noise from the yard. They found the victim tied, naked by the boiler. Was down there for 7-12 days. Evidence of rape.’ The document proceeded to go into detail about her injuries and had pictures Maria , Fury, Clint, Natasha, Coulson or May would ever forget.   
“That’s enough!” Clint said slamming the file shut and storming off, with Natasha following out.  
“I’m assuming that this document has been hidden!” May said forcefully.  
“Clint,” Natasha called after him.  
“I was supposed to keep her safe. I was supposed to be with her. I should have been…” But he was cut off by suddenly breaking down in tears.  
“Clint, do you not think I feel the same way? When I held her I said to myself ‘she will never be like me’ and I hoped she would never have to go through what I did. Yet, now I find out that not only does she have my serum, my blood, she also had a similar childhood to mine. She was raped at 16. Clint! 16, that’s not much older than my first. Clint, we can’t change the past but we can help pave the future.”


	15. Pave the Future

When they came back to the office, all evidence of their breakdown had been erased.  
“She’s awake,” Maria said checking cameras in Skye’s room. Nodding mutely, the two agents followed Maria out, leaving Fury to speak to a rather unhappy looking May and Coulson.  
Skye had been awake for a few minutes when she heard footsteps coming down the hall. She looked ready to escape just in case, after all, it wouldn’t be the first time she had run away from a hospital… The door opened and she saw the same woman who had been with her earlier.   
“Skye, they’re here,” Maria said, stepping out of the doorframe so that she could see a familiar red head and a blue eyed archer.   
Not knowing what to say, she said, “hi.”  
“Hi, that’s all you have to say for yourself?” Clint said, “I mean honestly you get yourself hurt and all you have to say is ‘hi?’” he continued his voice joking.  
“Well, what do you propose I say?”  
“I don’t know something along the lines of, ‘sorry I almost got myself killed.’”  
“Mother?” Skye said, sarcasm dripping from her voice, “How about a nice hello”  
Natasha couldn’t believe that the girl in the picture was the same girl who has sitting here and joking around, “How are you feeling?”  
“Well, I’m completely annoyed that I have to sit here for another two whole days. Ugh, there goes time I’ll never get back… Plus I hate hospitals,” Skye said, but quickly realizing her mistake, she added hurriedly, “not that I’ve been in a lot of hospitals, but the movies always back them seem awful.”   
She doesn’t want us to know Natasha’s mind supplied. She looked at Clint, having a silent conversation. Skye was just sitting there thinking this is probably the closest thing to telepathy I’ll ever see.   
“Skye, we saw the file,” Clint said carefully.  
“What file?” Skye asked, trying to play dumb. Though she knew exactly which one it was.   
“Your medical file,” Natasha said.   
“So you read it?” Skye said slowly, anger and shame boiling in her, “you decided to read my file, despite the fact that I had it hidden for a reason?”   
“It wasn’t like that,” Clint said trying to explain.  
“Then what was it like? You just stumbled across my file, that had all my encryptions?”  
“No it was Fury,” he tried again but was cut off.  
“Oh great, Fury read it as well, who else? Coulson? May? How many other people have read it? How many people think I’m broken?” Skye was screaming now, had it not been for the fact that her waist was tied to the bed, something that she is sure they did just in case she tried to run, she would have been long gone. Her heart monitor was through the roof now, a swarm of doctors and nurses came in, ordering them out. Skye was still screaming and crying hysterically now, obviously having a stress-induced panic attack.   
‘Ma’am, ma’am! Please, you have to calm down!” The nurses were saying frantically.  
“You have to let us in!” Natasha and Clint were both screaming at the doctors.  
“Please, don’t!” Skye screamed as they injected her with another sedative. “Please, Sir I’ll be better,” she said slipping out of consciousness. The parents looked at each other, both hearing what Skye had said. And both worried about her, and who she was talking about.  
“That could've gone better, lots better,” Natasha said.

OoO

Several hours later

OoO

“Sir, when can we see her?” Ward asked for the twentieth time.  
“I told you when she wakes up,” Coulson said, they were all sitting in the sitting room. Coulson inwardly shuddered as he remembers all the times that he had sat at Shield medical.   
Despite the reason they were all there, Coulson couldn’t help but smile at the scene. The science twins were sitting in the corner whispering about time travel, Ward, the one who had failed his people skills, was sitting in another corner polishing his gun. Then there were his dearest friends, Natasha, Clint, and Melinda. Walking up, he read all three of them quickly.  
“You should've seen her, she was so angry,” Clint said,   
“I know, just give her some time…” Coulson said. Attempting a joke he said, “Do you remember that time in Dubai?”   
“The one where miss ‘I don’t need any help’ decided to get three GSW to the leg? Nope do not remember,” Melinda said realizing what Coulson was trying to do.   
She succeeded when Natasha firing back, “say you, Miss ‘I don’t need backup’” Smiling sadly the four senior agents thought about everything they had been through together.

 

OoO

Once again when she woke up Maria Hill was sitting by her side.  
“Fury must really hate you if he keeps making you sit with me,” she said hoarsely.   
“This isn’t a punishment, I volunteered.”  
“Why?”  
“Because,” she said sighing, “I owe my SO a favor.”  
“Who…?”  
“Melinda May was my SO and at the time, Natasha, Phil, Clint, Melinda, and I lived together. You can imagine how close we got.”  
“So, how much longer am I locked up?”  
“Still two days.” Skye justed looked annoyed.  
“And when are you going to get rid of this restraint around my waist?”  
“The doctors want it on for another few hours, it’s just a precaution.”  
“Of course it is,” she muttered darkly.  
“Look, I know that you don’t like hospitals,” Maria began, getting a sharp look from Skye.  
“So you read it too.” It wasn’t a question.  
“Let me talk, please. Yes, I read that file, only the Director, Natasha, Clint, Mel, Phil, and I has seen the file. I read it first, then gave it to Fury, asking him to destroy it, then he said that your parents should at least get to read it as well. It just so happened that Mel and Phil were there too. You will be happy to know that the electronic version has been all but destroyed and there is only one paper copy of it, which is under level ten access, and Fury has it.”  
“Why does he care so much? Fury I mean. After all, I’m not even a real agent.”  
Maria looking her square in the eye said, “you need to understand something. The life as a Shield agent is not a kind one. Relationships are frowned upon, especially between agents who happen to be partners. When Natasha and Clint were expecting everyone told them that they were crazy. Especially Fury, he didn’t want two of his best agents getting hurt the way he did. Having children puts a giant bulls-eye on their backs. He didn’t want that for anyone. But when Fury held you for the first time, everything changed. I guess he realized that while a family is an agent's greatest weakness, its Shields greatest strength,” she said pausing, “when you were taken, it destroyed them, and in effect it hurt Shield. Shield takes care of its own. And to answer your question, Natasha and Clint decided the best way to get fury on board was to name him godfather,” she added the last part smirking.  
“This doesn’t change the fact that they invaded my privacy.”  
“Don’t be too hard on them, they are still new to the whole parent thing.”   
“Do you think I’m weak? That I’m broken?”  
“Skye, you are one of the strongest people I know. It's easy to fall apart, it’s hard to let yourself smile through the pain,” Maria said thoughtfully. They let a comfortable silence grow between them until Skye said, “Can you ask May and AC to come in?”  
Simply nodding, she left Skye to think about what she going to say. 

 

“She’s awake,” Maria said walking into the waiting room. Immediately, everyone sat, ready to hear the unsaid but, she continued, “she wants to talk to you two,” she said pointing a Coulson and May. Then walking out making it clear that they were supposed to follow. The two senior agents threw their friends a look and followed her out.  
“Ugh, when can I see her?” Ward asked exasperated.  
“Join the party kid,” Clint said gruffly.  
“Don’t be mad,” Natasha said softly, “remember up until a few days ago, Mel and Phil were her only parental figures. We just have to be patient.” Clint just nodded.

 

“AC, May, looking well I see,” Skye said looking at Coulson’s wrinkled suit and untucked tie.  
“Well it’s your fault, you have to stop getting yourself hurt,” Coulson said managing a small smile.  
“I know you saw the file.”   
“You shouldn’t be ashamed,” May said.  
“I know, but that’s not really the first thing I wanted them to know about me.”  
“So it was true?” Coulson couldn’t help but ask.  
Just nodding Skye said, “I just never knew how to deal with it, so I hid it.”  
“You should talk to Natasha, she knows more about it than you would think,” Phil said.  
Once again nodding she said, “Okay,” she said taking a deep breath, “I’ll talk to them, can you send them in?”


	16. What Makes You Special

When Clint and Natasha walked in, they smiled when they to saw how at ease their daughter was with May, they were joking around and smiling, or the closest thing May ever did to smiling. When Skye saw them her smile faded a little, yet she waved them forward. Natasha took to sitting at the foot of Skye’s bed, while Clint took a chair. Understanding that they needed to talk, May and Coulson excused themselves and left.  
“I’m sorry!” Skye blurted out.  
Confused, they looked at each other. Natasha said, “For what? We’re in the wrong. We looked at a file that we knew was yours and that we shouldn’t have looked at.” she said apologizing.  
“Yeah, but I shouldn’t have reacted the way I did, I mean, you are new to the whole ‘parent’ thing.”  
Clint was just watching in awe, Skye really was her mother’s daughter, he thought. Both women were so strong… “You don’t have to answer but, how many foster homes were you in?” Clint asked.  
Looking down she said, “twenty-three, but they weren’t all bad. I actually had one, the Brodys, they were really good,” she said surprising herself with how much she just revealed.  
“It’s an odd feeling isn’t in, being guarded your whole life then suddenly just telling someone something that a you have kept secret for years,” Natasha said understanding. Skye just nodded.  
“So this is a really, odd question but how am I your daughter, racially.”  
Clint said speaking up, “So as you know, Mel and us are very good friends. She offered to be your surrogate mother,” deciding to just tell the truth, “Tasha couldn’t have children, in fact we didn’t even think that her eggs were even there, but we found out that she did indeed have eggs.”  
“So, we extracted my eggs and his sperm, and then Melinda carried you,” Natasha finished.  
“How does that affect my race?”  
“I don’t know, honestly. But because of my pretty messed up biology, I’m not surprised that you took pieces of DNA from all of us, to fill in our weak strands.”  
“Does she know it’s me?”  
“Yes, but she was waiting for me to tell you.”  
“That’s so cool, I have an assassin, archer, and a ninja as parents,” Skye said, taking the news a lot better than they had thought, “when is my birthday?” She asked suddenly.  
“April 11,” Clint instantly answered. Laughing suddenly he said, “so Fury was already pissed that not one but three of his agents were out…”  
“So he had us in a conference room,” Natasha said interrupting.  
“And he was giving us the ‘how could you be so irresponsible’ speech,” Clint picked up.  
“And then Mel, who had been far too quiet doing the meeting said, ‘Guys, she's coming.”’  
“So Fury was looking at us like ‘I'm going to kill you’ and before the doctor could even get there, Mel had you.”  
“In a Shield conference room,” Clint added.  
“That’s so cool!” She said again smiling, “and is it true that Fury is my Godfather?”  
“It’d better be,” Fury said stepping into the room, “Agents Romanoff and Barton, I need to speak to Agent Skye.”  
“We’ll be down the hall,” Natasha said, as they left the room.  
Once they were alone, Fury said bluntly, “I need to know everything that happened.”  
“Not until you tell me everything!” Even Skye was surprised by how forcefully it came out, looking up she expected Fury to be angry but instead he was just smiling and shaking his head.  
“You really are your parent’s child.”  
“Um, thanks.”  
“I did expect you wanting your file. Here is everything we have,” Fury said handing her a thick file. Not knowing what to expect she opened it. The first thing in the file was a picture of Fury holding her in a Shield blanket, they were in a conference room, and Skye realized that this was a picture of herself on her birthday. Turning the page she was greeting by the official case report of her kidnapping. Dozens of leads that led to nowhere, pictures of potential suspects. Then it ends, with a few notes saying that while the case was not solved, there were no more leads, and therefore the case was closed, signed Alexander Pierce. She flips keeps going through the file, greeted by her medical file. It had numerous blacked out sections. With only the most basic information. Such as blood type, height, weight, identification number…  
Sighing she said, “Let’s see, it was about 2:30 in the morning when I got an email…” and then she proceeded to tell her story. “He said I was special, that I was something else…” She said, “I know I’m an 084, and that I was taken, but what do you know that I don’t?”  
“You were taken when you were four months old by a man who seemed to appear from thin air. Yet, you weren’t placed into the system. That’s eight months were anything could've happened,” pausing, “this is your blood when you were 3 months old, and this was taken yesterday.” He handed her the paper, on it were two pictures of DNA. Notes were written all across it. Points were highlighted, sections with question marks. The DNA looked basically the same, except not it had a marker in it. Looking up she said, “This isn’t real.” Yet in her heart she knew it was true. Looking through the notes she could barely understand any of them as they used very long sciencey words that FitzSimmons used. But one of the notes caught her eye in read, though there are no traces of Natasha Romanoff’s super serum, the DNA has an unknown marker in it…  
“Natasha has a serum?” Skye looked up, asking.  
“Yes, the only successful attempt after Rodgers, and you Agent Skye have inherited the serum.” Sensing the girl's’ shock, he got up and said, “I’ll get Romanoff and Barton."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I just wanted to address the racial connection. I know it has yet to be a huge problem, but I still wanted to tie up any loose ends. Just for the record, Natasha is Skye's mom. May will be more a mentor for Skye.


	17. Monster vs Mother

Skye was sitting up, looking a little fidgety when Natasha and Clint came in. But still she smiled when they came in. “Before you ask, I’m doing fine, confused, but fine.”  
Smiling Clint said, “Ha! What did Fury have to say?”  
“Oh just wanted to know about what happened. He also told me my DNA had an unknown marker in it, and that I have partial super serum blood in me,” Skye said breezily as if describing the weather.   
Smiling guiltily Natasha said, “Why can’t Fury ever let us tell you the slightly important details?” While Natasha talked to Skye, Clint was getting a pad of paper to write on. He handed it to Nat. She simply wrote: I can’t talk about the serum, to many cameras, and you never know who is listening. Handing it to Skye, she just nodded.   
“ Not that I don’t love you guys, but,” she said stressing the last word, “Do you mind bringing everyone else in?”   
While they were out, a nurse came in and removed the restraints making sure to say that should she try to pull anything that it would be reinstated. The nurse also checked her chart and muttered something. Ward, Fitz, and Simmons came over just as the nurse asked her pain level.   
“On a scale from 1-10? About 4.”  
“Where?” the nurse said taking notes.  
“In my stomach,” Skye said, smiling when she saw her team, and waving them in.   
“That means it is about a 7,” Ward said.  
“Don’t listen to him,” Skye said covering his mouth.   
“After you got shot, you said it was a 6,” Simmons chimed in. Skye just gave the nurse a look that said don’t listen to them, they’re liars.   
“Okay, you guys,” she said pointing to the visitors, “only 30 minutes.” The three just nodded. Ward took his position sitting in the chair next to Skye’s, and Fitz pulled up two chairs for him and Simmons. Jemma went to look at Skye’s chart.   
“So, Dr. Simmons, am I going to live?” Skye said jokingly.  
“It seems so. But you are not going to be able to do anything too athletic anytime soon.”  
“Here that Ward, straight from the doctor. No training.”  
“She said nothing athletic, she said nothing about mental training.”  
“Ugh! Why do I even try?”  
“Skye, I brought some felt-tip markers to draw on your casts,” Fitz said brightly. The three agents plus Skye surrounded her bed, making her boring whites casts much more whimsical.

“How are you?” Coulson asked Clint.  
“What do you think? I’m happy to meet her, sad that I didn’t get to see her grow up. Then I’m angry at the people who took her away from us. Then I’m furious at the stupid bastards who raped my little girl!”  
“I know, I know…”  
“It was my job to protect her, and I failed,” Clint said.  
“You may not get to see her grow up, but inside her is still the little girl who only wanted to be loved. Do you really want her to see you like this?”  
Calming down Clint said, “Why are so damn good at giving speeches?”  
“It’s a talent,” Coulson said deadpan.

“Did you tell her?” Melinda asked Natasha.  
“Yes, she seemed excited.”  
“I don’t want things to be weird between us,” May said.  
“Nor do I, but at the end of the day, she is just as much your daughter as she is mine. In fact, she is probably more so yours. You're a parent than I am after all. I don’t know how to do this. Mel, I was trained to kill, trained to be a monster!”   
“Don’t do this to yourself, Nat. I’m just as much of a monster as you are. I killed an innocent girl for God’s sake!”  
“And I killed a whole hospital of children. I watched my son get murdered, and I didn’t do anything. I murdered all the other girls there just because they told me to.”  
“You were brainwashed, Tash! I just shot her!”  
“You saved everyone there!” Natasha fired back. At that moment, Phil, and Clint came into the hallway that they were screaming at each other in. Looking at each other, they both sighed. The two of them did this more than either of them cared to admit. Mel and Natasha would scream at each other, both trying to convince the other that their self was the true monster. One minute they could be talking about the weather, and then it would suddenly flip.  
“Tasha! Mel!” the two yelled.   
“Stay out of this!” Both women screamed back.  
“How does this help Skye?” Clint asked.  
“Would she want to hear this, both of her mothers yelling at each other.” That seemed to snap the assassin and the spy out. Shaking her head, Natasha just said, “Let’s go see her.” If Coulson and Clint were surprised by their wives’ change of mood, they did not show it. When they walked into Skye’s room, they were greeted with Ward talking about all the things that he will be teaching Skye over the time while Skye is not allowed to do physical activities, and Skye just nodding and looking at Fitz and Simmons giving them funny looks.  
The four senior agents just looked at each other and smiled.  
“Looks like you have a knack for making quite the team,” Maria said walking up.


	18. Sit Down

Despite having just gotten the casts on, Fury requested that they were removed and x-rayed. Everyone, except for the people who knew about Skye's’ biology, was shocked when the x-rays showed images of perfectly healed fractures. Even though her bones were healed, her stitches were still fresh. So Skye was able to go back ‘home’ aka the Bus, with strict orders to rest. 

“Skye sit down!” Simmons said for what seemed like the thirtieth time.   
“I have been sitting on my butt for two days, don’t you think that I deserve a little bit of movement?” Skye asked.  
“Yes, but if you keep pacing, you will tear your stitches,” Simmons said.  
“Ugh! When you get bedridden for two days, you can talk. But for now, you can’t,” Skye said smiling.  
“I told you to sit down!” Simmons said.  
“Yes, Doctor Simmons,” She said rolling her eyes. She crossed over to the holo-table and sat down on the chair next to it. Picking up Fitz’s newest virtual design, she began to play with it.  
“No touching!” Fitz said slapping Skye’s hand away. At that same minute, Simmons said, “Skye! Don’t reach above your head, you could pull a stitch.”  
Looking annoyed she said, “First, it was like shoulder level, and second, what can I do?”  
Looking at each other, Fitz and Simmons said, “You can… you can do your computer social media stuff…”   
“Fine,” she Skye said crossing the lab to grab her laptop and phone. She sat back down when she noticed that her shirt had a little blood on it. “Simmons,” she said sighing, “I think that something’s wrong…”  
“And this is why you aren’t allowed to move,” Simmons said, looking slightly mad.  
“Fitz,” Skye said taking her shirt off and handing it to Fitz.   
“What did I say about lifting your arms?” Simmons said exasperated.  
“I was just trying to help!” Skye said in defense.  
“Whatever, lie on the table,” Simmons said getting the materials ready.   
“Hey! Coulson said he wants us… Skye!” Ward said walking in, “Simmons what happened?”  
“I just pulled a stitch,” Skye said nonchalantly.   
“This is actually a big deal, don’t shrug it off,” Simmons said wiping her abdomen with an antibacterial wipe.  
“Coulson, we’ll be a minute, Skye pulled a stitch,” Ward said talking into his com.   
“Look what you have done,” Skye said annoyed as she heard the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.  
When the senior agents got made it down, Skye said, “Oh! Now that we’re all here, you can tell us whatever you want to,” she said looking at Coulson.  
“Not so fast hotshot,” Clint said crossing over to the table.   
“What did she do?” Natasha asked.  
“She just pulled a stitch, but she needs to rest, or else it could get infected.” Simmons said, finishing the re-stitching her friend.   
“That’s quite the scar,” Clint said pointing to where Skye had been shot, twice.  
Natasha elbowed Clint in the stomach, hard, knowing what it is like to be asked about scars.   
Just laughing it off Skye said, “Yeah, it seems that I always get hurt in my stomach.”  
“You and me both,” Natasha said. Looking over to May who gave her silent permission she said, “But Mel over there, well it seems that knives and bullets find himself in her gut.”  
“It’s okay, I would take that over getting shot in the back,” Melinda said. Clint and Phil just looked at each other, not sure where this was going.  
“I take it that there is a story there,” Skye said smiling.  
“Yes, but that’s for another time,” Coulson said. “But the reason that I called you guys here was because we got another hit on Ian Quinn with Rania.”


	19. Pretty Good Plan

“What?” Skye asked while everyone else seemed to have to take a moment to understand what Coulson had just said.  
“Ever since your kidnapping, Ian Quinn has been on Shield’s most wanted list. We don’t know if he slipped or if he wants us to find him, but a few minutes ago Quinn and Rania were spotted by a gas station camera. Fitz,” Coulson said pointing signaling to Fitz to pull up the feed from HQ. As they watched the video of Raina and Quinn getting into a black car, Skye feels herself moving towards her parents.   
“Okay, that was over an hour ago, they could be anywhere now,” Clint said.  
“I can check his bank accounts,” Skye said as she began typing furiously.  
“Quinn must know that he is on Shields hit list. We should begin...” Natasha began then she and May shared a look, then suddenly went up the stairs.   
“Where are they going?” Skye asked looking up from her work.  
“We don’t know how they do it, but somehow together they can do anything,” Clint said.  
“If Ian Quinn is on this earth, they will find him,” Coulson added, “FitzSimmons can you begin working on something that will sedate Deathlock, he is probably going to make a guest appearance.” They just nodded and went to work.  
“Clint, with me,” Coulson said walking the other man out of the lab.  
“I know you are going to want to protect her, but remember this is just another mission. It is better to help her carry out her plan than try to stop it because either way she is going to do it.   
“I know, I know.”

“We got a hit on Quinn,” Natasha said through the Bus intercom.  
When everyone made their way up to the briefing area of the bus, May said, “He is currently in Egypt, checked at a hotel under the alias Matthew Thomas.”   
“He just two bought tickets to a formal gala, it’s being held at the same hotel he is staying at,” Skye said, her eyes still glued to her computer, and her fingers typing furiously.   
“Skye, can you get two more tickets,” Coulson asked, knowing the answer.  
“Already one step ahead of you. Two tickets under the names Claire Evans and Elizabeth James,” Skye said.  
“I call Elizabeth,” May said instantly.  
“Why do you always get the good names?” Natasha asked.   
“Okay, then Clint where do you want to be?” Coulson asked.  
“Ah, let’s see. Right there,” he said pointing to a building right next to the hotel.   
“Agent Ward, you and Barton will be stationed there, shoot only if it is necessary,” Coulson said.  
“Oh! I guess that is our cue,” Simmons said, “We created a new Icer that should be able to sedate a hulk sized force.”  
“But it is very light, and it should only take a few milliseconds to activate within the body,” Fitz added.  
“Looks like a pretty good plan, May?”  
“Looks good, we’ll be in Egypt in five hours.”


	20. A Million Pieces

It had been a long day of planning and training for the mission, but they were finally ready. All that was missing was May and Natasha. Clint, Coulson, and Ward stood by the hanger door waiting for the two women.   
“What on earth could be taking them so long?” Ward asked looking down at his watch. Coulson and Clint just looked at each other and laughed.   
Still chuckling Clint grasped Ward’s shoulder and said, “There are few great mysteries in the world anymore. The one that is by far the greatest though is ‘why women take so long to get ready.’ In my many years of experience, I have found it is best to simply wait, and that Natasha and Mel are always ready exactly when they need to be”  
Five minutes later Ward was about to ask the question again when both Melinda and Natasha came down the stairs. Natasha was wearing a deep red dress that gathered at the waist and flared out to the floor. The dress was a perfectly elegant yet left room for imagination. She wore her hair in loose curls and had a dark smokey eye with a nude lip. Melinda, on the other hand, wore a beautiful black, halter top dress. She had light eye makeup but a cherry red lip. Unlike Natasha, Melinda wore her hair up in a french twist. Both men were speechless, much Ward’s amusement.  
“Wow! You guys look so good!” Skye said breaking the silence, walking down the stairs, “AC you clean up pretty nicely.”   
“Thanks, Skye.”  
“How many?” Clint asked, finally breaking out of his trance.  
“23” “21,” Natasha and Mel said at the same time.  
“What?” Skye asked, clearly confused.  
“That's how many weapons we have on us,” Natasha explained. Skye nodded, looking even more confused than before. Then taking a closer look she realized that all the jewelry they had were weapons and May’s hair piece had was a knife.  
“Stay safe out there,” Skye said hugging Natasha. 

 

“Names please,” the guard said.  
“I’m Claire Evans,” Natasha said, batting her eyelashes a little.  
“And I’m Elizabeth James,” Melinda said.  
“Okay, all set,” the man said.  
Walking into the ballroom both women took on their respective roles. Claire was the daughter of a successful American politician. She had decided to travel the world, along the way she met Elizabeth James, the younger sister of a famous french designer. Quickly spotting Quinn at the bar, Natasha went up to an empty seat. While May began to socialize with the guests, keeping a close eye on the situation.  
“Thank you,” Natasha said to the bartender as he gave her a glass.  
“Now what’s a pretty lady like you doing all on your own?” Quinn said leaning over. Had it been any other night, Quinn would have been more suspicious of his luck. But it seemed as though he had had one too many drinks.   
“What is a handsome man like yourself doing all alone?” Natasha asked. Raising an eyebrow, and leaning over to give Quinn a clear view of her breasts. While he was momentarily distracted, she put some powder into his drink.  
“Oh, I’m just making an appearance, after all, it’s important for public figures like me to do so,” Quinn said puffing his chest out.   
Pretending to think for a second, she fake gasped and said, “Oh, Ian Quinn?”  
“That’s what it says on my passport. But I still don’t know your name,” he said, practically purring.  
Having to fight from laughing as she heard Clint gag through her com she said, “I’m Claire.”  
“A pretty name for a pretty girl. It’s a little crowded in here, don’t you think? I have a room.”  
“I like how forward you are,” Natasha said. Hopping down from her chair, as Quinn finished the last of his drink.   
May who had been watching the situation, began to follow Quinn and Natasha.  
When they got to Quinn’s room, he made quick work of removing her dress. Rolling her eyes, she began to wonder how long it would take to for the drug to take effect. Doing what she was trained to do, she played along. Finally, the drug took effect, and Quinn fell unconscious. Pushing his body off of her own, she quickly put her dress back down and opened the curtains. She gave Clint the signal. A single silent arrow soared through the night sky, and Clint came not far behind. Ward began to signal to Coulson when he saw the familiar blue glow of Deathlock.   
Yelling into his com he said, “Deathlock! I have a clear shot.”  
“Take it!” Coulson said. Then he saw three, not very discreet Centipede soldiers in the crowd. Quickly he began to clear everyone out of the ballroom. Clint and Natasha came running down, armed and ready to fight. It was an easy fight Natasha thought, too easy. They were walking out after talking to Shield’s clean up crew when a single shot was fired. The events happened in slow motion it seemed. The bullet hit Clint in his back. Medical got there in record speed. Know one knew what was happening exactly. Skye was screaming and crying through the coms, begging someone to tell her what had happened. What was supposed to be a happy moment because they had captured Quinn and Deathlock became a somber one.  
Everyone went silent. All wondering what was happening and how Skye was. They heard gunshots and then their coms went silent. Skye immediately began working to get them back online. Fitz and Simmons could do nothing but watch sadly as their friend broke. When Skye did get the connection back, they almost wished that they didn’t. May, Coulson, and Ward were coming back to the Bus with Quinn and Deathlock. Natasha and Clint were at a Shield hospital. No one directly told her that his condition was bad, but the way Coulson’s voice wavered… that told Skye everything that she needed to know.  
When they got back to the Bus, they found Skye at the bar drinking. Ward simply went up to her and told her stop. After screaming at him, saying that Ward should've protected him, she found herself crying. Grant Ward had never felt so useless. Coulson watched the girl that he saw as his daughter break. No shatter. He always knew that Skye was like a piece of glass. A piece of glass that was doing everything it could to stay together. And today, he watched the fragile glass break in a shatter into a million pieces.


	21. What's the Plan

Four Days Later  
The doctors said that he should be waking up soon. They said that yesterday, and the day before that. The doctors told the team that the bullet had gone through the bottom of his left lung, but was expected to make a full recovery. Skye and Natasha were sitting at his hospital bed. Natasha shudders internally at all the memories of Clint laying in a Shield hospital. If the team thought that Natasha was a mess, then Skye was a wreck. They were all worried about Clint, but Skye more so. May and Coulson knew that while Natasha would be a mess, she wouldn’t let herself get sick. Clint wouldn’t want that. Skye, on the other hand, hadn’t slept in four days, she only ate when someone forced her to. Ward was the only one who had managed to get Skye to take a shower. Some of the doctors wanted to admit Skye to the hospital.   
If it hadn’t been for their watchful gaze, they would have missed the small movement in his fingers.   
“Clint?” Natasha asked. His finger moved again, then his hand. Until he was holding Skye’s hand.   
“Daddy?” Skye almost sobbed.  
“Yeah, it’s me, baby girl,” Clint said. Pain obviously clear in his voice.  
“I’ll get the doctor,” May said.  
“I need to use the bathroom,” Ward said, giving FitzSimmons a look.  
“Oh! Yes, and we need to do that thing, at that place,” Fitz and Simmons said stumbling out.  
“You two look like hell,” Clint said looking Nat and Skye, “go get cleaned up, I’ll still be here, please.” He said.  
As if noticing for the first time that she looked awful she looked down and managed a small smile, “But you just woke up…”  
“And I’ll still be here. Please.”  
Finally giving up in defeat, she ungracefully stumbled out of the room and to the bus.  
Once she was gone Clint said to Natasha, “you should go to.”  
“Sorry, that ain’t going to happen.”  
“Nat...please.” Clint Barton was Natasha Romanoff’s only weakness. Sighing she got up. Walking out of the room, she motioned to Coulson, May, and the doctor to go in.   
She hadn’t planned on falling asleep, but after showering, and eating Skye all but collapsed in exhaustion. Luckily, Ward was there to catch her and carried her to her bunk. She is so light he thought. And suddenly a million other questions popped into his mind. No, it’s just all the stress he countered his previous thoughts. He was walking out of her bunk when he saw Natasha watching him under her watchful gaze.  
“You mean a lot to her,” She said.  
“She means everything to me,” Ward said as he moved closer to the assassin.   
“Just so you know, if do anything to hurt her. I will kill you,” Natasha said, the threat clear. Ward just nodded.  
“Good, now that we have that cleared up…” Natasha said walking past Ward and into the bunk that she and Clint had been sharing.

OoO

Four Hours Later 

OoO

“Why didn’t anyone wake me?!?” Skye asked as she rushed out of her bunk. Coulson and Ward who had been chatting looked up from the couch that they were sitting on.  
“You needed some sleep,” Coulson said.  
“But I told Dad that I would be there,” she said in a rush grabbing an apple.   
“Skye! Slow down, Agent Romanoff just called, she said that Clint just woke up,” Ward gently explained.  
“Whatever,” Skye said rushing out.  
When Skye made it to Clint’s hospital room, she laughed at the sight she saw. It was Natasha, the Black Widow, and Clint. Natasha was reading a book in what appeared to be Chinese and Clint was eating jello. It was just so funny to see the world’s best assassins doing something so- ordinary.   
“Skye,” Clint said cheerfully, “I’m glad to see that you are looking better!”  
“Says the man who got shot through the lung,” she said crossing over to Natasha and sitting next to her.  
“Oh please, that was nothing,” Clint said, acting as if the idea of getting shot as normal as getting rained on.   
“Ok…” Skye said, then the family fell into an awkward silence, nobody knowing what to say or do.   
“Nat? How long do I have to stay in this god awful place?” Clint said attempting break the silence.   
“Only one night. I think Fury and everyone have given up on trying to keep us here.” Nat said. Smiling as she thought about all the time she has helped bust her partner out of a hospital.   
“Something tells me that there is a story...”   
Looking at each other Clint said, “Well you see, we get hurt. A lot. And umm, we also don’t like hospitals, at all. So sometimes,” he said looking at Natasha, “well most of the time, we sign ourselves out earlier than what is recommended.”  
“What he means to say is we like to wreak havoc to Shield medical,” Natasha said bluntly.  
“Wow, they must love you,” Skye said rolling her eyes.  
“Yep, we’re their favorite. Though Stark may give us a run for our money,” Clint said thoughtfully.  
“Yeah, but Stark doesn’t have twenty-five years of Shield medical under his belt,” Natasha said laughing slightly.  
“You’ve been here for twenty-five years?” Skye asked a little shocked.   
“Well, I have. But Clint has been here…” Natasha said fading off, “how long has it been?”   
“27? 28? 30? I don’t really know, to be honest, I’ve been here too long to even remember. How old was I?” Clint asked out loud.   
“You were 19 when you joined Shield,” Coulson said walking in.  
“How do you even remember those details?” Clint asked.  
“It was the day my life was turned upside down,” May said, also walking in, “I was drinking tea in Phil and I’s apartment when he gave me your file.”  
“Little did I know what I was getting myself into,” Coulson said, “Do you remember what you said to me when I showed you that file?”   
“Well after I told you that you were losing your mind, I think I told you that he was a good kid, just at the wrong place at the wrong time…” May said, being transported back in time.   
“Uh, standing right here guys,” Clint complained.  
But the two agents just continued, “and little did we know that five years later, he would do the same and give a choice to Natasha,” Coulson said.  
“Yeah, those were the good days,” May said sighing.   
“Guys! We’re still here,” Skye said. Even though she liked hearing about her parents, she was tired of listening to people talking in the third person about them.  
Finally snapping out of their trance, May smiled and said, “So what’s the plan?”


	22. Movies

Looking at Melinda, Clint smiled and said, “I was wondering when you would ask.”  
Looking confused Skye just sat there and asked, “Wait, what?”  
“女儿, the plan to get Clint out of this place,” May said, taking pity on the young agent.  
“So, I take it that you also don’t like this place,” Skye said smiling. May just gave her a look that told her all that she needed to know.  
“You guys are a bad influence on me,” Coulson complained, “but I already asked Simmons to be ready for your arrival.”  
“A distraction?” Natasha asked as she began helping Clint unhook his from the wires.  
“One step ahead of you,” May said with a grin as they heard a small, yet harmless, explosion.  
Quickly the four agents plus Skye made their way back to the Bus. When they got there Simmons quickly ordered Clint to rest.  
“You just came out of a medically induced coma, you have sustained an injury to the lung. You shouldn’t be walking, yet alone running,” She said.   
Leaning over so the others couldn’t hear, Ward said to Skye, “I bet we would win every fight with her in the front.” Skye simply smiled and laughed.  
“Feels like the old days,” Clint said chuckling.  
“Don’t give my agents any bad ideas,” Coulson warned.  
“Yeah, we don’t need a group mini us running around,” Natasha added.   
“Okay, all set,” Simmons said, finishing getting Clint settled.  
“Guys, would you mind giving us a chance to speak?” Coulson requested. Nodding and walking out, the four younger agents made their way to the upstairs common area.  
Knowing exactly what to do, they did their respective jobs. Once they did that, the four put in a movie.  
“Fitz, did you get the good snacks?” Skye asked.  
“Of course, I did,” Fitz said rolling his eyes.  
“Good, cause last time Simmons brought in that weird, healthy crap she calls food,” Ward added.  
“Just because it is English and healthy doesn’t make it weird,” Simmons said in her defense, “So Skye what movie are we watching?” Simmons asked. “You didn’t let Ward choose did you?”  
“Okay one time, one time. And just because you don’t like the movies I do, doesn’t mean they are bad movies.”  
“Ward, it was in Russian,” Skye said.  
“Every good field agent should be able to speak another language,” Ward commented.  
“You also paused it during every fight scene to tell me how their form was wrong, and I do speak another language.”  
“Wait, what?” Fitz asked.  
“Yeah I speak Chinese,” Skye revealed, “Well I’m better at reading and writing it, but I fully understand it and can speak it.”  
“Okay...But back to the movie,” Ward said, adding this information to his mind.   
“You’ll see,” Skye said smiling and pressing play.

“Fury will have your head for this,” May commented when the four younger agents left.  
“Like you didn’t have a part in this,” Clint said.  
Chuckling Coulson said, “It feels like the old days, you know it.”  
“Yes, with one of us in a hospital bed and us joking around about getting murdered,” Natasha added.  
“Precisely.”   
“Well, the past dictates the present,” May said crossing over to a chair and putting her feet on Clint’s bed.  
“Are you comfortable Mel?” Clint asked, mockingly.  
“Don’t call me that but, yes, thanks for asking.”  
“Fury should be calling around now…” Coulson said out loud.  
“And there he is,” Natasha said, her phone ringing.  
“Hello,” Natasha answered, putting the phone on speaker.  
“What the hell Romanoff?” Fury shouted through the phone. “I close my eyes for one second and then suddenly I have a slew of doctors and nurses asking to quit. This is why I don’t like it when you four get together! And May, Coulson, I know that you can hear me. This has your hands all over it May. Now, I need to go convince my staff to rethink their decision to leave,” Fury said hanging up. Even though he was a little pissed at his four top agents sending his well-oiled machine into utter disarray, he was secretly glad that May was acting like her old self.   
Once he hung up, the four agents couldn’t help but laugh.   
“God, how are we not fired?” Clint asked.  
“I don’t know but I’m going to check on the kids,” Coulson said.  
“Coming,” Natasa said getting up.   
When they made their way up, they were greeted by a sight that made them smile. The credits of a movie were rolling and the four younger agents were sleeping. Fitz and Simmons were holding hands, while Skye and Ward were snuggled together. Quietly taking his phone out, Coulson took a picture of the scene before him.


	23. Don't be a Hero

3 months later  
The team had just had a successful mission in taking down another Centipede unit and had a rare moment between them. Everyone on the Bus was sitting in the lounge area and the world was a peace for a moment. Skye and Ward were playing battleship while Natasha and May quietly talked. Coulson had loosened his tie, and he and Barton were drinking and laughing. FitzSimmons were reading books at an extreme pace, then stopping at each chapter to talk about it. Skye looked around and couldn’t help but smile.   
“I win!” Skye said jumping up.  
“How on earth do you do that?” Ward said a little grumpily.   
“What?”  
“Battleship is a game of strategy. Always thinking of the next move. Knowing what the other player is going to do before they even know it.”  
“Well T-1000 you have your way, and I have my way,” she said skipping off to Clint. Over the past 3 months, she and Clint had become closer.   
“Hello, Father,” she said pouring herself a drink.  
“Hey,” he said, pulling a chair up for Skye.   
“Thanks!”   
Just then, the computer screen lit up. Checking to see what it was, Coulson sighed when he did, “Guys, sorry but it looks like there is a hostage situation.” He said as the team looked up.  
“And they want us to go deal with it,” May continued looking at her tablet that got the same message.   
“Why?” Skye asked.  
“The man, Don Woods, escaped from a Shield containment unit two days ago, and we are the closest team. He is now the man responsible for the situation. Nat, May, I want you to talk to him. Fitz, Simmons, Woods is extremely unstable. I need you two to ensure that he can not escape the building. Good, good. Barton, you and Ward are going to get the people out of the building,” Coulson concluded.  
“Sir, what do you want me to do?” Skye asked.  
“The particular building is a research lab. I want you to find a computer and get everything on a flash drive, then delete it. Okay, move everybody.”  
“ETA fifteen minutes,” May said.

OoO

During the mission

OoO

The mission began as planned. Ward and Clint were just beginning getting the people out of the building, and it looked like Natasha and May were getting through to Woods. Skye was looking for the mainframe when she got to the basement, that’s when she saw it.   
“Guys, Woods has a ticking time bomb in the basement,” Skye said quickly.   
She heard Natasha and May ask about the bomb that was planted. She saw Ward and Clint rushing to get the rest of the civilian to safety through the security cameras, knowing her mission she put the flash drive in. It would take one minute and fifteen seconds to get all the data on it and to wipe the computer clean. The bomb was going to go off in three minutes. She was three levels underground.  
“Skye get out! Don’t be the hero,” she heard Ward scream.  
“Get everybody out! I’ll be right out,” she said as she pulled the flash drive out and began to run up the stairs.

“Where is she” Coulson roared. They had gotten all the civilians out thanks to Skye’s warning and Woods was unconscious in the Bus containment room. Then suddenly they heard a huge explosion, and then they saw the building collapse, and Skye was still in it.


	24. Welcome to Avengers Tower

“Skye!” Everyone screamed. Natasha, Clint, and Ward instantly rushed to the building while everyone else tried to keep the civilians back. Simmons had her head buried in Fitz’s shoulder and all he could do was stand there in shock.   
“Skye! Skye! Where are you?!” Ward screamed, pulling back the ruble. He had finally made it inside the building, and to what was left of the stairs. Natasha and Clint were not far behind Ward. They had heard Woods say that the bomb was deep underground and therefore was in the basement. They were one the second level when they saw Skye. She was unconscious, and her legs were pinned under a large metal beam.   
“Skye!” Clint said running over. Ward and Clint began to remove the beam, as Natasha informed Coulson and May.   
Suddenly Natasha’s phone began to ring.   
“Stark, this really isn’t the time,” Natasha growled.  
“But I need you to go over these blueprints and identify the weak spots.”  
“Tony, this is not the time,” she said again. Then suddenly an idea came to her, “Stark how far are you from Santa Monica?”  
“I can be there in 5 minutes why?”  
“I need you to get here in 2, I’ll send you the address. Stark, I’ll explain everything just get here fast.”  
“Nat, we can’t move it!” Clint said in despair.  
“I called Stark, he should be here just about now,” Natasha said, as a familiar red suit was seen blasting a hole through the ceiling.  
“Stark! Down here,” Clint yelled.  
Carefully, Tony was able to lift the beam off of Skye’s legs and fly her out to the Bus. Once all the civilians were insured safety, the team (plus Tony) had a meeting. 

While Fitz and Simmons watched Tony Stark, the most brilliant engineer of all time. The man who invented a new element, Clint, Natasha, Coulson and Stark were having an argument.   
“I’m telling you, we have everything we need to care for her,” Clint said.  
“That may be, but I’m just saying she would be safer in New York in the tower. Plus you and Red still have a room,” Tony pleaded.   
“Why would we go with you instead of to Shield?” Coulson asked.  
“Because you need help, and fast. I can get that, no questions asked,” Tony argued.  
“And with what doctor?”  
“We have Banner.”  
“Banner! He is not a medical doctor!” Clint roared.   
“True, but he has enough experience combined with Simmons, it will be enough,” Tony argued.   
“Nat, you have been awfully quiet,” Clint said, “what do you think?”  
“I think, we should go to New York, to the Avengers Tower. Plus,” she said turning to Phil, “It’s time that the rest of the team sees you.”   
Giving up in defeat Clint says, “Fine.” While Coulson told May to get them the New York as soon as possible.

May had somehow managed to land the plane in such a small space, and getting them to New York in record time. FitzSimmons who had been doing their best efforts to stabilize Skye wheeled the table Skye was on and into the medical lab that Bruce Banner had prepared.   
“This is Skye, she sustained a head injury approximately three hours ago, in addition, a large metal beam crushed her left femur, and then cut across diagonally hitting her right patella and tibia,” Simmons said, in full doctor mode, as Fitz handed Dr. Banner the x-rays that he and Simmons had taken.   
“She’ll need a blood transfusion,” Bruce noted, looking at a gash across Skye’s head.   
“Got it,” Natasha said walking in, while Clint got the stuff to hook her up.   
“Due to the trace amounts of serum, many of the cuts have healed. Her bones may have started to heal already,” Simmons said quickly.   
“Okay, Fitz can you begin the IV. Simmons, begin cleaning and stitching her cuts,” Bruce said, also in full doctor mode… And that was the last thing that Coulson saw before they Clint closed the doors.  
“And now all we can do is wait…” Coulson said sighing. Tony gave him a look that said, upstairs, now. Stark, while he had his reputation knew that earlier was not the time to have this conversation, now was. So he, Coulson, and May made their way up to the common floor.   
“What the actual hell Agent!” Stark screamed, “You were dead. We saw the blood.”  
“Let me explain,” Coulson started.  
“No, you were dead. The staff went right through your heart, no one comes back from that!” And then they heard a glass break, standing with shock in his eyes was Captain Steve Rodgers.   
“What?” Steve said confused, “This isn’t real.”  
“Yeah, it sure as fucking hell is not real. I don’t care what your story is, but you are not Phil Coulson!” Tony said, punctuating every word.   
It was that moment that Thor decided to walk into the heated argument. At first, the demi-god didn’t notice Coulson, but when he did he said,” What is this dark magic Son of Coul?” His voice boomed.  
“Not magic, alien biology,” Coulson said, once again trying to explain.   
Suddenly a knife came flying in, millimeters from hitting Stark’s hand, “Enough,” Natasha said, with a deadly calm. The room went quiet.   
“Jarvis,” she said suddenly, “please run a DNA test between the man next to me, and Phil Coulson.” The room waited for the longest second. “Match confirmed,” Jarvis’s voice said.  
“Explain, now,” Tony demanded. And then Coulson explained Tahiti, and the parts he didn’t know the answers, May stepped in and explained.  
“Why now? Why tell us now?” Steve said.  
“Fury didn’t even tell me until recently, I thought I was dead for 40 seconds.”

Skye was unfortunately well versed in waking up in a hospital setting. Slowly waking up, she looked around her. On her right was Coulson, May, Nat, and Clint, but then she looked and saw Fitz and Simmons and Bruce Banner?   
Noticing that her daughter was awake, Natasha said, “You know, you really need to stop getting hurt.”

Looking back over to her team, she saw them nodding in agreement. Suddenly she realized her throat had the familiar scratchy feeling, and pointed to the glass of water. Gulping it down, she nodded gratefully.   
“Your Bruce Banner,” Skye said looking over.  
Smiling weakly he said, “Guilty as charged, but don’t worry you have nothing to worry about.”   
Nodding, Skye suddenly realized that she was not on the Bus, “Where are we?”  
“Welcome to Avengers Tower,” Tony Stark said, smirking slightly, as he walked into the med bay.


	25. Mystery Agent

After Coulson told his story, he, Nat, Clint, and May simply left to see Skye. Leaving Thor, Steve, and Tony a lot to think about.   
They all stood there for a moment until Tony suddenly said, “Jarvis, tell me everything about Melinda May.”  
“Stark, what are you doing? This is highly inappropriate!” Steve said.  
“Aren’t you a little curious?”   
But before Steve could reply, Jarvis began, “Melinda Qiaolian May, level seven clearance, she is the youngest field operative to have joined Shield to date. Agent May was partnered with Agent Phil Coulson, later May and Coulson joined Strike Team Delta,” then suddenly Jarvis stopped.  
“What’s happening?” Tony asked his prized AI.  
“All other documents on Melinda May are sealed,” Jarvis replied.  
“Can you look again?”  
“They have been sealed at the highest level.”  
“Fine, find out everything you know about Fitz and Simmons.”  
“Leopold ‘Leo’ Fitz, and Jemma Simmons, level five clearance, they are the youngest agents to have graduated from the Shield Science Tech Academy, both graduated three years early. Agent Fitz graduated second in his class, being beat only to his partner Jemma Simmons. Agent Fitz, engineering. Jemma Simmons, biochem. The two are considered the brightest scientist of the century,” Jarvis concluded.   
“Okay...Um…” Tony began, taking all this information in. While Steve did not approve of what Tony was doing he couldn’t help but be interested.  
“Ward?”  
“Agent Grant Ward, level seven specialist. Extremely low people skills. Was mentored by Agent John Garrett.”  
“Well, he is quite boring. Okay, Jarvis. What do you know about the Skye girl?”  
“Agent Skye, level one field field agent.”  
“What else?”  
“All other information is sealed,” Jarvis’s metallic voice said.  
“Okay, let’s go see this mystery agent,” Tony said. Then remembering, he called Pepper, “Hey, Pep remember how you told me to call if we have guests, well, surprise we have guests today.”   
Walking down to the med bay leaving Steve and Thor behind, Tony finally made it just in time to see this Skye girl waking up.  
“Welcome to Avengers Tower,” he heard himself saying. 

Skye couldn’t believe it. Tony Stark was standing right in front of her.  
“Uh, hello,” she said nervously, her voice still raspy, “it’s so cool to meet you.”   
“The coolness wears off very quickly,” Clint muttered under his breath.  
“So I just wanted to say hello and whatever you need ask Jarvis and he will get it for you. Also, I have the blueprints for you Red,” Tony said leaving, then remembering, “Oh, you guys can stay in the guest rooms for however long you need. I’ll get someone to prepare a floor. You guys are okay being on the same floor right?” Then looking at their faces, “What?”   
Fitz and Simmons couldn’t believe what they were hearing. This version of Tony Stark did not match up to the version they had all heard and believed. Coulson speaking up for his speechless team said, “yes, thanks so much Tony.”   
“Any time Agent,” He said, then walked out of the room.   
Not wanting to ruin the moment, Simmons nervously told the team that they had to leave so that she could run some tests. After the team filed out, surprisingly without a fight, Simmons began to examine Skye.   
“You shattered your left femur and your right patella and tibia,” Simmons began as if talking about the weather, “you had cuts all across your body, but luckily only four required stitches.” Simmons then proceeded to check the gash across Skye’s forehead. Gingerly removing the bandage.   
“How long was I out?”  
“Only three-ish hours.”  
“So when can I get out of this stupid bed?”  
“Well, Miss Skye, because of the...because your body is enhanced. For lack of a better word, you won’t need to wear casts, but you will need to use a wheelchair for a few days. Then after that you will need to lighten the amount physical of training,” seeing Skye protest, “and before you tell Ward otherwise, I already told him.”  
“God, I’m really hating Doctor Simmons,” Skye said leaning back against the pillows.  
“Well, patient Skye is really bad at staying in bed, and following orders.”  
Grabbing her hand Skye repeated what she said months earlier, “I’m grateful, I want you to know that.”  
Not knowing how to react Simmons just nodded and said, “well I see no reason why you should stay in bed. So I’m going to let you go, but Skye seriously, take it easy.”  
After just glancing at the blueprints, Natasha saw a dozen problems. Turning to her partner she said, “would you mind, going to our floor and getting a room ready?” Simply nodding, she went to find Tony.   
She let the papers fall with a thud, Tony looked up, “Can I help you?”   
“You asked me to identify the weaknesses and I did,” Natasha said, rolling her eyes.  
“Okay,” he said picking the papers up to see practically everything covered in red. “Nat, care to explain?” So for the next thirty minutes or so Natasha went over the blueprints with Tony until he suddenly said, “So what’s her story?”  
“Who?”  
“Melinda May? I looked at her file. There's nothing there.”  
Not even looking up Natasha said, “Yes there is.” ‘I would know because I was the one who hid everything except the basic information’ she thought. Technically, Fury hid everything, but it was Natasha who told him what to hide.   
“That bull crap, come on you must know something, she did work on your team,” Stark coaxed.   
“Stark, drop it. There are somethings that just don’t need to be known.”  
“Okay, fine,” he said sensing that this would get him nowhere, “Fine, what about this Skye girl. Who is she? And what is her relationship to you?”  
Smiling inside, she just said, “Skye is a hacker. Actually, she hacked her way into Shield.”  
Tony cut her off “So what I can do that.”  
“Off of an old laptop that she won on a bet,” she continued.  
Paling slightly Tony said, “But that doesn’t explain her relationship to you.”  
“Tony, why are you so obsessed with knowing everything about my daughter’s life?”   
Needing a moment to think he said, “Wait! What?”  
Before she could even respond someone came up the elevator saying, “Stark, would you please stop hacking into my top agent’s files!” Said the voice of an angry Nick Fury.


	26. Sense of Humor

After getting Skye settled in the wheelchair, Skye and Simmons ran into Steve on the elevator. So the three of them made their way up to the common area. Not aware of the current situation upstairs, when Skye got to the floor she said, “Mother, do I have to use this stupid wheelchair?”   
But when she saw her mother about five seconds away from killing Tony, all jokes stopped. Then looking across the room she saw no other than Director Fury.   
“Director, what brings you here?” She said, “Was it to see me?”  
Cracking a smile, he said, “While it’s good to see you,” his face quickly going flat, “I’m here because Stark, has been hacking into files again.”  
After the initial shock of hearing what Natasha Romanoff said, Tony started laughing.  
“What’s so funny Stark?” Fury demanded.  
“Whoever said that the Black Widow has no sense of humor was dead wrong,” Tony said, laughing so hard that he was crying, “She said she has a daughter!”   
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Natasha said, so calmly that everyone went dead silent, causing Tony to quickly trying to fix his mistake.   
“Uh, I just meant that, um. We just thought. Well, your file never said anything about a daughter…” He stumbled.  
“Well, it’s not a joke, I can ensure you that,” she said cooly.  
“Well, who is the father…?”  
“I am,” Clint said, who had come in halfway through the conversation.   
“Wait, what?” Tony looked beyond confused, then suddenly he smiled, “I knew that you were sleeping together!” He said with triumph.   
“Tony, that’s rude!” Steve said, reprimanding Tony.   
“Cap, it’s okay, and Tony, we’re married,” Natasha says dryly.  
Tony then looks at Fury for confirmation, “It’s true,” Fury says.  
“Congratulations!” Steve said warmly.  
“What proof do you have?” Tony asks, not quite ready to give up.  
Clint who is now by at Natasha side smiles, and then takes a chain tucked under his shirt with a simple wedding band on it. At the same time, Natasha does the same thing, revealing a chain with two rings.   
Thor, who had been watching the interaction from the kitchen, came up behind Nat and Clint and engulfed them into a big hug.   
“How many years?” Bruce asked.  
Smiling, Clint answered, “23 years.” Once again congratulations were heard around the room.  
“Okay, okay. Now that we have that out of the way, back to business,” Fury said seriously, walking up to Tony, “Stark, believe it or not, some things do not need to be seen by you-”   
“I was just curious…” Tony interrupted.  
“But if you are so inclined to learn about my agents. Try asking them first,” Fury said.   
“Fine,” Tony mumbled. “And you four,” Fury said, pointing to Nat, Clint, May, and Coulson, “Try not to cause too much trouble together. We don’t need a repeat of Singapore, do we? Now, I must be on my way,” He said walking out, mumbling about being too old for this crap.   
Once Fury was out of sight Tony said, “Back to the biggest game changer ever, how do you have a daughter? And what happened in Singapore?”  
Sighing Natasha said, “Tony if you don’t know how babies are made, then I really don’t think I should be the one to tell you.”  
“That’s not what I meant,” Tony mumbled, “and what happened in Singapore?”  
“That’s classified,” Clint, Nat, May, and Coulson said in unison.   
“Oh come on. That’s a terrible excuse!” Tony whined. Natasha shot him a look, and he quickly dropped it.   
Tony looked like he was going to say something else when suddenly an angry Pepper Potts made an appearance. “Anthony Edward Stark!” Tony cringed at the usage of his full name.   
“I thought we talked about telling me when you were going to put your life at risk before doing so. And why are you here I thought you were at the Malibu house. And saying ‘by the way we have guests tonight?’ What is that? You have thirty seconds to explain. Go!” Pepper said.   
“I called Spidey to have her help me, then she said I needed to save a girl, Skye, from a collapsing building, then it turns out that the girl is her long-lost daughter,” Tony tried explaining. Pepper suddenly turned around, just realizing that other people were in the room.  
“Natasha, Clint it’s good to see you! How have you been?” Pepper asked, all anger quickly vanishing. Then she saw Coulson.  
“I must be seeing a ghost? Phil?” And then Coulson went into his explanation for what felt like the millionth time that day.   
When he finished, Pepper continued to greet the rest of the team. Finally, she got to Skye, “You must be Skye. So glad to meet you, all of you guys,” she added. Then realizing the time she said, “Oh my! You guys must be so exhausted! Um, Bruce? Would you mind showing Jemma and Phil where they can sleep? You guys are the only ones who haven’t been there yet, right? I can't wait to meet everyone else” She says as Ward and Fitz are missing, “And Nat, Clint, I’m assuming that you guys will be on the normal floor with Skye?”  
“Only if she wants to,” Clint says. Skye only nods in agreement.   
Wheeling Skye up proved to be more challenging than everyone had originally thought, but they did it. Once Simmons helped Skye get settled, she went up to bed.   
“Skye, if you need anything, we are just down the hall,” Clint said.  
“Kay, night Dad,” Skye said, already half asleep.


	27. The Man Across the Street

Waking up, Skye looked around confused before all the memories came rushing back. Smiling slightly, she made her way out bed and into the annoying wheelchair, despite feeling fine. The clock read 6am. Thanks a lot, Ward she thought. Slightly she made her way to the kitchen area of the floor. To her surprise, both Natasha and Clint were there. Clint was drinking coffee and casually counting and organizing his arrows. Natasha had all her knives on the table, and she was carefully cleaning them. Despite being quiet, both parents looked up when they heard Skye.   
“Coffee?” Clint asked.  
“God yes,” Skye said, wheeling over, looking at Natasha’s knives.   
“This one is my favorite,” Nat said, pointing to one of the smaller knives. Skye noticed that all of Natasha’s weapons had a small hourglass on it, obviously symbolizing a black widow.   
“Skye, what do you want in your coffee?” Clint asked as it was usually Ward who made Skye’s coffee.  
“A little sugar and some milk.”   
“One cup of coffee,” Clint said, handing her the cup.   
“What is on the agenda for today?” Skye asked.  
“Well, I have a meeting with Fury,” Clint said scrunching his face.  
“And I have to be there to ensure that he is mature,” Natasha added.  
“Cool, After Jemma checks my legs, we were going to go out shopping,” Skye said. Then seeing her parents face she adds, “And we’ll make Ward come with us.”  
Three hours and dozens of shops later award is just about to give up.   
Skye noticing his discomfort said, “Super Spy, what happened to be trained to handle any situation?” She asked with a smirk.  
“I’m off the clock,” Ward said, gritting his teeth.  
Much to Simmons confusion, Skye’s bones were completely healed, so Skye was walking around as if just yesterday she did not have two broken legs.   
“While I have your attention, what do you think of this?” She asked, holding up a blue chiffon dress.   
Ward was at a loss for words, luckily Simmons came to his rescue and said, “Skye, that looks so pretty! Try it on!”  
Ward internally groaned, the had tried on so many outfits that all seemed to look the same. When Skye came out, Ward couldn't help but stare. The dress was almost knee length and clung to Skye's curves perfectly.   
“What do you think?” She asked, almost shyly.  
Once again, Simmons came to his rescue and said, “Wow, it looks so good, that's definitely a keeper!”  
Cheerfully the two women walked out of the store with Ward holding their bags. Skye claimed that it was a workout. Ward rolled his eyes internally. They were walking back to the tower when suddenly, Skye stopped dead in her tracks.   
“What is it?” Ward asked, already reaching for his gun.  
Looking at Ward, she said, “That…”   
“What?” Simmons asked.  
Skye looked back at the other side of the street, whoever she had seen was gone.  
“It nothing, just someone that looked like another person I knew.”   
But she knew what she saw. Even if it was for a second she knew who it was. Across the street, she had seen the man who gave her food when she was at the orphanage. The man who took her from her parents. The man who had unexplainable powers. The man across the street was Gordon.


	28. Daisy

23 years ago ~ location: classified  
“I’m so sorry ma’am, you lost the baby,” a doctor told the devastated woman, “I’ll give you a moment.”  
The man, turning to his wife said, “I’m so sorry Jay, we can try again.”  
“Cal It’s all my fault,” the woman said, grabbing her husband’s hand, “I lost our baby.”  
“No, no, no. Jay, you did nothing wrong, some things just aren’t meant to be…” Cal tried to soothe.  
Looking up with tear stained cheeks, “You’re right,” her voice suddenly filled with anger, “It is his fault. I’m going to kill him.” It was a promise. Cal could hear it in Jaiying’s voice.  
A year passed and now Jaiying was the head of a new organization. The organization's main goal, create a team that would destroy the people who took her happiness away. Cal watched sadly as his once kind wife’s eyes became clouded with anger. Yet dutifully, he stood by her side.  
She had created a base were her people could train, and learn. She called her team Inhumans. She called the base Afterlife. So far, she had been able to change those with an existing genetic marker. But she wanted more, she wanted to create an Inhuman out of a human. So far all her tests had failed.   
Jaiying sat at her desk, pouring over the most recent report. They kept running into the same problem, the serum was too slow. The subjects would die before the serum could heal them. She needed someone how could heal at the same rate as the terrigen took over the subject’s DNA. They also needed a young subject, someone that she could train properly.  
“Ma’am, I think that we found the perfect subject,” Gordon said, “young, and has traces of a super serum.”  
“Who are the child’s parents?”  
“Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton, but I think she is perfect.”  
“You couldn’t have found someone a little less lethal?” Jaiying said dryly, “Whatever, get the child for me.”  
13 hours later  
Jaiying was pacing, Gordon was supposed to be back by now. But she trusted him, he had been extremely loyal, even at his young age of twenty. Of course, everyone is young when you practically can live forever. Just as she was about to panic, the familiar blue lit the room. In his arms was a baby.  
“Gordon, I thought you were getting the child,” Jaiying hissed, not seeing the baby.  
“Here she is, four months old,” Gordon said, handing the infant to Jay.  
Despite the happiness she felt in finding the perfect subject, she couldn’t help but feel guilty for taking such a young child. But those feeling were quickly pushed aside.  
“She’ll need a name,” she heard herself saying.  
“Uh, they named her Lillya…” Gordon supplied.  
“Daisy, her name is Daisy,” Jaiying said firmly. At that moment, Cal came in.  
“Is that her?” He asked.  
“Yes Cal, this is Daisy.” Cal couldn’t help but feel shocked. When Jay and he were thinking of names for their child, Daisy had come up a lot. Thinking it was best not to mention that fact, Cal simply went to Daisy and told Jay that she was beautiful.   
8 months later  
They had successfully managed to add the genetic markers into Daisy’s DNA. While it was not exactly what they had hoped for, Jaiying did not want to risk Daisy’s life. They agreed to wait until Daisy was older for her to be changed. After all, they were patient. They would wait until they were at their strongest to kill the man who cut her open and killed her child. But now she and Cal had a new child. The universe was giving them another chance. Despite their undying love for Daisy, both Cal and Jaiying knew that she could not live within Afterlife. Thanks to Shield, threatening the Inhumans, they would have to send Daisy away. With one last goodbye, the parents sent their baby away.   
Years after, they sent Gordon to watch their baby girl. They hoped one day that she would understand. They watched her grow up through the photos that Gordon took. Every time their girl was hit, was abused, it took everything in Cal’s power not to kill the people who hit his girl. They watched sadly as their girl went through life believing that no one wanted her. But they would get her back, they would explain to her. One day, they would be reunited, and Daisy would become something great.


	29. Nightmare Confessoins

Present Day  
After their shopping trip, Simmons went down to the labs. Ward had finally agreed to train lightly with Skye.  
“Come on, hit me harder,” Skye said, rolling her eyes.   
“Yesterday you had two shattered legs,” Ward commented, still circling Skye.  
“But you saw the x-ray,” she pressed, throwing a punch.  
Ward easily avoided said punch, but did not see Skye bring her leg up hitting Ward in the stomach.   
Bending down, he gasped, “I see you have been training with your mother.”  
Skye quickly realized that her kick landed harder than she thought. Kneeling down she said, “Oh my god! Did I hurt you? Do you need help?” Suddenly Ward rolled over so he was on top of Skye.   
“Never let your defenses down,” Ward said.  
“God, I hate you,” she said, reaching up to kiss Ward. Ward simply smiled and helped her up.   
“Fine. But if you feel even the slightest bit tired, you tell me,” Ward said, Moving her hair out of her face. The gash across her forehead looked much better than it did. But she still had a thin row of stitches.   
“You got it!” She said as they began to circle one another.

OoO

Later that night

OoO

It was no secret that both Clint and Natasha had nightmares. So it came to neither of their surprise when they found themselves awake at two in the morning. Knowing that sleep was not an option, both went into their living room area. Clint went to go prepare the tea, and Nat went to grab the Shield paperwork that they saved for the sleepless nights.  
As she was passing Skye’s room, she heard faint moaning. Opening the door, she saw Skye thrashing around and muttering in her sleep.   
“Skye, Skye wake up,” Nat said, knowing better than to touch her. She recalled all the times that Clint had been sent flying into the wall after waking her up. Suddenly Skye shot up, her eyes wild.   
Giving her a moment to collect herself, Nat sat at the foot of the bed.  
“Lillya, are you okay?” She could see Skye looking around for the source of the noise.  
“Yeah,” she said a little shakily, “I’m fine.”  
“Okay,” Nat said, unconvinced. “If you want, Clint and I are working on some paperwork if you want to join us.”  
Skye silently nodded and followed her mother out.   
“One sec, I need to grab the paperwork,” Natasha said. Skye just nodded and followed Nat into her and Clint’s room. She went up to the bedside table and smiled as she looked at a picture. It was her, Nat, and Clint. Coulson must have taken it when they weren’t looking.   
Suddenly she frowned, in the dim light she saw a glint. Reaching down she put her hand on the piece of metal. It wasn’t a gun or knife it was a pair of handcuffs. Turning around confused, Skye said, “Ahhh…?”  
Natasha who had been grabbing the paperwork heard Skye discover one of her secrets. To be honest, she had purposefully let Skye see them. She deserved to know.  
“They help me sleep,” she confesses to the confused girl.  
“When I was six, they would handcuff us to our beds to keep us from running away. Later, when I was older I got my own room, so they didn’t handcuff me. But even now, I still use them after especially hard days. Sometimes, they are the only thing that keeps me in reality,” Natasha revealed.   
“I- I never knew…” Skye said.  
“Yeah, not many people do. We all have our secrets. But just know Lillya, it’s not an easy life. Keeping secrets and lying for a living. It doesn’t have to be me, but you need to find someone who you can share with. If you don’t, it will eat you up from the inside out,” Natasha said, thinking about how Clint taught her how to trust.  
“Come on, Clint is probably wondering what’s taking so long,” the assassin said.

“Hey, Tash, I got the tea,” Clint said, not seeing Skye. “Oh, hey Skye,” He said brightly.   
“What are you doing at…” looking at his watch, “2:17?” Natasha then sent him a look to anyone else would just be ‘a look’ but Clint knew what it meant.  
To his surprise, Skye answered, “I had a nightmare.”   
Not sure what to say, Clint says, “Yeah, those can be a bitch. I find that going to the shooting range is calming.”  
“Same, though, sometimes I go to the roof. Stark has a killer view,” Natasha added.  
“What, what are they about?” Skye asks hesitantly.  
“Uh…” Natasha begins, “Skye, I need you to know that I am not a good person. I have killed a lot of people in my lifetime.”  
“Nat…” Clint said softly, not liking where this was going.  
“There is not a night that I don’t think about all the lives I have ruined and or ended,” Natasha said. Skye just went over to her mother and held her hand.  
“When I was little my brother Barney and me, we… We barely got out. Our father was an abusive drunk. We got out, but sometimes in my sleep. Well, I sometimes feel like we didn’t,” Clint shared.  
Feeling the need to share, Skye said, “when I was younger, at the orphanage. There was a large window that I would go to when I couldn’t sleep.”  
Not knowing how to respond, Clint just picked up a stack of paperwork and a pen, stating that the work was not going to do the for itself. Laughing, Skye picked up her tablet and began to fill her ‘paperwork’ digitally.   
Natasha looked around her. This was never how she pictured spending her time with her daughter. Doing paperwork at two in the morning, yet nothing seemed more perfect.


	30. Sleepless in New York

A few weeks had passed since the late night paperwork season had happened. Currently, Strike Team Delta was on a mission. The team had been very busy with Centipede missions. On the days when the team was not on a mission, Skye had been filling her days with finding intel on different Centipede sources.  
“Crap,” Skye said, realizing the time. She had been so engrossed with the intel that she hadn’t realized the time. Sighing, Skye went up to room to attempt to sleep. Unfortunately, her sleep was plagued with nightmares. Nightmares of one of the worst homes she had been in. She dreamt of Mrs. Kensey, as she sent Skye and the three other girls into a state of oblivion. Then she dreamt of the kind man Gordon who saved her from Mrs. Kensey. 

Skye woke up in a cold sweat. Bolting up, her feet took her to the garage in Stark tower. Smiling, she found what she was looking for. She crawled into the back of an SUV, shaking. For the rest of the night, she relived the night that Mrs. Kensey killed Kate and Abby. She was only eight years old. Kate was the oldest of the four girls. Mr. Kensey was a nice man, but he worked a lot, so he was around rarely. The first day that she had arrived, Kate pulled her away and told her to create a food stash, Mrs. Kensey meant well but she often forgot that she had children. After about three weeks Mrs. Kensey found her husband's gun. Skye wished that she could say that it was a quick death, but Kate and Abby both bleed out, slowly and painfully. Only she and Bella survived. They only survived because Gordon hid both girls in a closet. The police came quickly after that after a neighbor heard the gunshots. They found the dead bodies of Kate and Abby. The police found Mrs. Kensey seconds away from killing herself. That was the first night Skye ever had a panic attack. Both Kate and Abby’s blood were on her hands. 

Skye crawled out of the SUV just before May and she did Tai-Chi. The last thing she needed was a worried Melinda May, who would tell her parents. Then she would have a worried Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton.   
“Hey!” Said a cheery, bright-eyed Skye. It was alarming how good of an actress Skye had become.  
“Hello, Skye.” And so her day began. Tai-Chi with May, workout with Ward, then a late lunch on the common floor.   
“Miss Pepper, pass the salt, please,” Skye said politely.   
Rolling her eyes gently, Pepper did so and added, “I told you it’s just Pepper.”  
“Right, sorry. So, what’s the plan for the day?”  
“Well, Fitz and I are working on a new healing agent. Seeing as you guys get hurt so often,” Simmons began.  
“Yes, it should being to heal the cells as soon as it is administered into the body,” Fitz cut in.  
“-it’s because the drug contains both a clotting agent-”  
“-and a self-rejuvenation aspects-”  
“-to it, therefore should be able to heal a GSW in minutes!” Simmons concluded. Then she looked around the room. Only Tony and Bruce seemed to follow the conversation.  
“Have you considered using copper to sterilize the wound?” Bruce asked.  
“Yes, but that may react badly with the oxygen pump that we would use to administer the drug,” Fitz explained.  
“I may be able to help with that,” Tony said.   
“It’s like they share the same brain,” Skye said, leaning over to Pepper.  
“Tell me about it,” Pepper responded.  
“Well it looks like we have lot’s of work to do,” Tony said, getting up.  
“Don’t forget about the board meeting at four!” Pepper called.  
The four agents plus Pepper were left. After a few awkward minutes, Pepper excused herself.   
“Ward,” Coulson began, the specialist’s head shot up.   
“You and Skye need to finish your reports from the Tulsa mission.” Skye just groaned, and grabbed Ward’s hand, pulling him up from the table. 

“Why do we have to do this again?” Skye complained for the millionth time.  
“Protocol,” Ward answered gruffly.   
“Protocol my ass.”  
“Just finish.”  
Because of the constant missions, they had quite a few reports to file. Skye was fine up to the fifth one, then she started to get bored.  
“Skye, you four have one more to do.”  
“Fine…”

Several hours later, Skye went up to Coulson’s office.   
“Here, Sir,” she said. Dropping the papers with a thud.   
“Thank you.”   
“Yep,” she said, popping the p. 

OoO

The next few nights followed in the same way that the previous one did. She would try to sleep but would be woken up by some horror from her past. By the third day, the team was starting to notice. Her patience was shot and she had dark circles under her eyes, makeup could only do so much. The team had tried to talk to her, but she just blocked them out. Coulson could only guess what was keeping her awake. He knew that the only people who had a chance were halfway across the world. 

Four days after Skye’s original nightmare, she found herself confronted by the whole team.  
“Skye, what’s wrong?” Coulson began.  
“I have no-”  
Ward cut her off, “Skye there’s no point in trying to deny it. What’s wrong?”  
“I- I don’t know.”  
“Skye, we’re just trying to help,” Simmons pleaded.  
“Guys!” She said standing up, “It’s none of your damn business!” Then she stormed off. None of them dared to follow her.   
“Miss Skye has left the building,” Jarvis informed.  
“Well, that went well,” Coulson said, pinching his nose.


	31. Where She Went

Skye didn’t know where her feet were taking her. So when they reached their destination, Skye couldn’t help but smile. She was in Central Park. Clint showed her this place. It had a nice high vantage point and was well hidden. She sighed, sat on the large rock, letting her mind wander.

OoO

Natasha and Clint were just finished with their mission. Despite everything going perfectly, they were both pretty beat up. When they got to the tower, they were greeted by the grim faces of Melinda May, Phil Coulson, and Grant Ward.  
“Where is Lillya?” Natasha demanded.  
May and Coulson looked at each other. Then Coulson said, “Nat, she left two hours ago. We don’t know where she went.”  
Clint thought for a second, “I do.” Then he went straight back to the elevator, Natasha following behind him.  
“Clint! I want to find her just as much as you do, but don’t you think her seeing us like this would… alarm her. Alarm everyone in New York?”  
“Fine,” he said with a huff.  
They quickly showered and changed into their civilian clothes, and in record speed, they found themselves in Central Park. It was snowing lightly, and no one seemed to be out.  
“Do you think she really came here?” Natasha asked.  
“Yes.”   
Both the assassin and the sniper made their way to the hidden rock. When they reached the destination, both heard the distinct sound of crying. Not wanting to startle the girl, the agents climbed up rather loudly.   
“Lillya?” Natasha asked bending down so she was sitting next to her daughter, Clint did the same. In response Skye just leaned over to her mother’s lap, hugging her waist. Skye continued to cry for the next few minutes. Finally, her crying seemed to slow down, and she sat up.  
“Sorry,” she said, wiping her her tear stained face. Clint, who had the foresight to bring water, handed his daughter a bottle.   
“Thanks,” she said meekly.   
“Lilly, do you want to talk about it?” Clint asked.  
She nodding her head no, then yes. “I killed them,” she said softly.  
“I didn’t mean to,” she continued, “Kate and Abby went to see what was happening, then Mrs. Kensey shot them. I- I killed them. I asked what was happening. If I hadn’t, then maybe they would still be alive. Only me and Bella survived, it was him. Gordon, he saved us.” Tears were streaming down her face. Nat and Clint both looked at each other, not knowing where this was going.   
“I have so much blood on my hands. Kate, Abby, Miles… and the worst part, they were good people.”  
“Lillya,” Natasha said, “I know what it feels like. I know what it is like to have blood on your ledger. I have spent twenty-five years trying to clear it, but you know what? It doesn’t. It never goes away. You simply have to learn how to live with it.  
“How, how do you live with it?” Skye asked.  
“I remind myself of all the good things I have. I try to make their lives count,” Natasha answered after some thought.  
“Do you remember when I said I named you after the strongest person I ever knew?” Skye nodded.  
“I named you after a girl who died so I could live. She was my best friend, but we couldn’t have friends, so they made me kill her.”  
“I’m so sorry,” Skye said, looking into her mother’s eye.  
“Dad, thanks for showing me this place,” Skye said. Clint just leaned over and hugged his daughter. The family watched the snow fall and the sunset.   
“I think it’s time for us to go in…” Clint said after a few hours.  
“Yeah, okay,” Skye said, standing up and brushing the snow off of herself.  
“How are you not cold?” Clint said shivering, as they walked back to the tower.  
“I’m Russian,” Nat answered.  
“I lived in a van for two years… Turns out a metal box is not the greatest at keeping you warm,” Skye said.   
They continued to walk in silence until they reached the tower. They were greeted with the worried faces of the team.   
“AC,” Skye said, going up to hug him.   
“Hey, Skye. How’s it going?” Skye just nodded and continued to hug him.  
“I was so worried,” Ward said planting a kiss in her hair, once Skye had let go of Coulson.  
“I’m sorry,” She said simply.  
“Guys, I’ll explain everything later, but I’m just really tired. So I’m going to tuck in for the night.”  
The team said goodnight and then were left to wonder if Skye really was okay.  
Natasha and Clint both followed Skye up to their floor. Without ceremony, Skye crawled into bed. Natasha and Clint leaned into the room and turned off the lights. She was just about to leave when she heard Skye faintly ask, “Can you stay, please?”   
Without comment, both Natasha and Clint kicked off their shoes and crawled into bed with Skye.


	32. Through the Window

Around five in the morning, the trained assassins internal alarm clock woke them up. Both Natasha and Clint watched their daughter. She looked so peaceful, and they realized this is probably the most sleep that she had had in awhile. Both parents stayed in the room until Skye woke. It was about seven when Skye woke up. Clint had gotten his arrows and was inspecting them,while Nat was cleaning her guns. Skye groggily rubbed the sleep from her  
eyes. 

“Hey,” she said with a smile.  
“Oh! You’re awake.  
How are you feeling?” Clint asked.  
“I’m… I’m doing better than I have in a while.”  
“That’s good,” Natasha added. The family continued the friendly banter, being careful to avoid the topic of last night. Skye finally decided to face the music. She went down to talk to FitzSimmons first. It was a surprisingly easy conversation, both of her friends understood. But finally, she had to talk to May, Coulson and Ward, who were surprisingly together. But they were all worried about their girl.   
“Hey,” Skye said, crossing over to Ward, grasping his hand in her own.  
“Hey,” Ward echoed back, kissing his girlfriend's hair.   
“How are you?” May asked with a surprising gentleness.  
“I’m doing good,” she answered simply, “I- I just have been having nightmares I guess…”   
“It's okay, you don’t need to explain,” Coulson said crossing over to hug the girl he saw as a daughter. May, surprisingly, also crossed over to join the hugging party.  
“Guys, I can’t breath,” came the sound of Skye’s muffled voice. As Steve, Tony, Bruce, Nat and Clint entered the common floor. The team smiled and then let the girl go.   
“I’m always here for you,” Ward whispered into Skye’s ear. Skye turned so that she was facing him, “I know, Grant. I know.” Ward smiled and then leaned down to kiss her. Clint coughed.  
Skye turned around, “Yes?” She said with fake politeness. He just rolled his eyes and said, “We have team training. And I wanted to know if you wanted to watch me beat Tony, again.”  
“Hey! In my defense…” Tony struggled to come up with a good excuse. Natasha just smirked.  
“In my defense,” Tony began again, “I wasn’t trained to be an assassin, and I didn’t go to your circus training camp…” Tony looked at Nat nervously. While the team did not know the full extent of her training, they did know about the habits that the Red Room left her with. Like her wake-up times. How never to startle the assassin unless you wanted to be at risk of being shot. How to never question what happened in the Red Room.   
Natasha smirked and said, “Hey Tony! Would you like to be my sparring partner?” Her tone left no room for argument. Tony gulped.  
“Come on,” Clint said,thumping his teammate on the back as he retreated to the elevator with May, Skye and the rest of the Avengers following them.

OoO

“Okay!” Steve began,  
“Agent May, are you going to join?” She nodded.   
“Well, Clint and May,Nat and Tony. I want a clean fight, no weapons. The winners will spar each other.”  
Instantly Clint and May began to circle one another. Clint was aggressive, instantly striking a hit at May’s shoulder. May quickly grabbed his hand mid strike and flipped him over. He landed with a thud.  
“I forgot how good you were…” Clint mumbled as May helped him up, “Best of three?” Clint won the second round, and the third went on for so long that Steve called a draw.   
“Hey, Nat!” Clint called, “How’d it go?” Natasha just gave an eyebrow raise. Tony started muttering something about having a suit…  
“That was so good!” Skye said running over, hugging her barely sweaty mother.  
“And May you were so good too!”  
“What! No love for dear old dad?” Clint said with fake hurt.   
Before Skye could reply, Steve said that Clint, May, and Nat were going to spar.  
“You’re in for a treat,” Coulson said to Skye, “them three are the best Shield hand to hand combat agents.” Skye could tell, they all seemed to know exactly what the other was going to do. Causing the agents to circle one another. All dodging and blocking hits that never landed. It kinda looked like a dance. Finally, after an hour, Steve called time.   
“So, Agent May. Why were you not in New York with us?” Tony asked. May went rigid, suddenly reliving the event. Everyone went silent. The answer was simple, Bahrain.   
“I had a personal matter,” May answered cryptically, she shrugged it off, but Nat, Coulson, Clint, and Skye could all see her eyes glazed over.   
Surprisingly, it was Steve who reprimanded Stark. “Stark! You don’t ask those questions!”  
“But you saw how good she is!”  
“I’m sure she has her reasons,” Steve argued.  
May, tired of the speculation quietly said, “I went on a mission that went south.” Everyone once again went quiet. The team was surprised that she said anything at all. Tony opened his mouth and closed it, just realizing the magnitude of the situation.   
After a minute of the awkward silence, Tony pulled Skye to the mats. Melinda was just happy that the attention was off of her.   
Natasha smirked and called, “Stark, you know that she is a trained agent.”  
“Yeah, but how good can she be? How old are you kid?” Tony said pointing to Skye.  
Skye scowled, “I’m twenty-two.”  
“See, she’s just a kid.”  
“Okay, but don’t expect any help if you land on your ass,” Clint called. The fight, if that’s what you could call it was funny to watch. Tony kept trying to use his strength to knock the girl down. But Skye would just side step and because Tony’s of the momentum, he would run right past her. Finally, he seemed to realize that his method was not working.  
“Finally, for a genius, you would think he would figure this out,” Clint murmured to Nat.  
“Yeah, I think he underestimated her,” Nat said as Tony landed with a thud.  
“I would stay down if I were you!” Natasha called.  
“I just slipped…” Tony tried to reason. Ward ran up to Skye congratulated his rookie.   
“Come on, let’s go get cleaned up,” Skye said, pulling Ward. On the way to the elevator, Skye stopped, looking through the giant windows.   
“It’s him,” she whispered. She pointed to a tall, eyeless, man standing across the street. Natasha and Clint, noticing their daughter horrified look came over.   
Clint looked through the window, “That’s him.” He confirmed. Then, Gordon looked straight up at them, smiled and waved.


	33. Quinn’s Mistake

Three months ago~ location: classified

Jaiying was pacing again. It was a habit that she picked up a while ago. She was waiting for a man named Ian Quinn to call her back. Finally, Gordon came into her office with a phone in his hand.  
“He’s on the line,” he whispered. Giving him a curt nod, she grabbed the phone.  
“To what do I owe the pleasure?” Came the voice of Ian Quinn through the phone.  
“Mr. Quinn, you need to move up the timetable. I need Daisy now.”  
After a moment of silence, “Why?”  
“Because Daisy has been found by Natasha Romanoff and Clint Barton.” She refused to call them her daughter’s parents. She was Daisy’s mother.  
“Okay… It’s going to take some time.”  
“You have two days.”

OoO

Two days later

OoO

“I have the girl,” Quinn said through the phone.  
“Daisy, her name is Daisy. And good, tell her whatever you what, just not about me. I want to personally tell her. And do not underestimate her, she is a trained agent.”  
“I know; I have two soldiers at her door.”  
“Good. I will be there in two days. I have a business matter to attend to.”  
“See then Ma’am.” Then the line went dead.

OoO

Two days later

OoO

Quinn was dreading his boss’s arrival. So when the woman came to the compound, it took everything in his body to stand still.  
“Ma’am,” He said, bowing his head slightly.  
“Where is she?” Jiaying demanded.  
“Well, you see…”  
He was cut off. “You lost her,” she said with an eerie calmness.   
“Um, yes.”  
“Well that is not good, is it?”  
“No Ma’am.”   
“I honestly thought you were better than this,” Jiaying said. The disappointment in her voice was clear. Without a word, she flicked her hand and two men came in and knocked him out.  
Sighing, she grabbed her phone, “Gordon. Yes, he failed. Get my Daisy, but do not harm her. Let her come to you on her own terms.”


	34. Gordon

It had been a few hours since Gordon’s appearance, and Natasha and Clint were livid. The man had disappeared right in front of their eyes again. They couldn’t track the man, and they had no way of knowing where he went.   
“Try again!” Clint demanded.  
“Dude! I told you this a million times, I can’t,” Tony said putting his hands up.   
“Well, bullshit!” He said.  
“Barton, calm down,” Coulson said using his ‘agent’ voice. Almost instantly Clint muttered an apology.  
“Sorry, I just really want to catch this bastard,and it frustrates me that I can’t.”   
Skye, who had been quiet for some time said, “Isn’t obvious. I need to talk to him.”  
“What do you mean?” Coulson asked.  
“At the orphanage, I whenever I even said his name he would come. It was like he could hear me.”  
“No, we are not using you as bait,” Natasha said. Quickly followed by Ward saying, “Skye, I know you want to get him, but this is not the way to do it.”  
“I know Grant, but it's the only way. Plus, FitzSimmons can create a tracker or something to stop him from transporting. Right?”   
They look at each other, “Uh, yes,” Fitz says finally, “it seems that he uses a quantum entanglement bridge, so if we could disrupt that…”  
“And I can help with that,” Tony adds.  
“See,” Skye says, “if we can get him in one place, I can talk to him. And, I can where a tracker just in case.”  
“I still don’t like the idea of you being in a room with a nut job,” Clint said angrily.  
“Plus, I just have a feeling that he won’t hurt me. Let me do this. Please,” Skye pleaded.  
The four senior agents have a silent conversation. Finally, Nat said, “Fine, but not until everything is ready.”

OoO

Location: classified  
“I am confident that Skye will contact me, Ma’am,” Gordon said.  
“Don’t call her that,” Jiaying snapped, “but this is good news. Shield will monitor the conversation, but convince her that she needs to speak to me. Answer her questions, but make her have more. Make her desperate for answers that only I can answer.” 

OoO

Four hours later~ Location: Avengers tower  
During the last few hours, Fitz and Tony have been hard at work. Finally, they seemed to be confident with their work. They had given Skye a bracelet, eerily similar to her internet nanny. They said it would monitor her vitals as well. Skye, while she had put on a brave face was freaking out. On one hand, she remembered him as the man who gave her food. The man who talked to her. The man who saved her from Mrs. Kensey. Then, she thought about all the pain that this man had caused as well. Gordon would have never needed to save her if he hadn’t taken her in the first place. After hours of thought, she was finally ready to face him.  
She walked into the bus’s honeycomb cage. Taking a deep breath she whispered, “Gordon.”  
There was a blinding dome of blue, Gordon at the center of it. “Hello, Skye.”  
“Hi.”  
“Skye, I’m sure you didn’t call me to chat. What is it?”  
“I have questions…” She stuttered, all her confidence had vanished.   
“You want to know why I took you,” she nodded, “I had my orders.”  
“From who?”   
“I can’t tell you that. But I can take you to meet her.”  
“So it's a her?” Gordon didn't answer.  
“Why me? You could've had any child in the world, why me?”   
Gordon thought for a second. He was trying to come up with the best way to phrase this.  
“You are special, more special than you think,” he said carefully. Skye suddenly remembered Ian Quinn saying the same thing.  
“Are you and Ian Quinn working together?”  
Gordon let out a little laugh, “Ha, you mean him? The man who dreams of power, yet never will have it? Let’s just say he won’t be causing any more trouble.” Skye paled.   
“You killed him.”  
“No, he is with us.”   
“Us?”  
“You have the potential to be so much more, Skye. I know that your friends long to know why your DNA is different. They’re watching, aren’t they?”  
“So, what is the difference?”  
“Well… Let's just say I’m tired of waiting.” Suddenly, the man flew into action. With a knife that seemingly appeared out of nowhere, he through it with deadly accuracy to the device that Fitz and Tony made. It shattered. Without thought, Gordon took Skye by the hip, and then they were gone.   
The team looked at the feed blankly. They had let Skye go in there, now she was gone.  
“Uh, sir… Her bracelet says that they are in… southwest China.”   
Natasha and Clint were surprisingly calm. Maybe it was because they were in shock, maybe it was because they knew that panic would not help their daughter. But they just looked at each other and said, “okay. Let’s go.”


	35. Welcome Home

Location: Avengers Tower  
Everyone was busy getting ready for the fight that was to come. Natasha and Clint were eerily calm as they made sure that their weapons were in top shape. Ward was lashing out, barking orders at the agents who had been called into help. Simmons was frantically trying to make sure the med bay was ready for any possible injuries that Skye may have sustained. Finally, everyone seemed to be ready. They all loaded onto a small quinjet and flew to China. 

OoO

Skye looked around her. Somewhere along the way she had fallen unconscious. The room was red, she was on a table in a different outfit than the one she had on earlier. The opened to reveal Gordon.  
“Hello, Skye.”  
“What did you do?”  
“Oh, those,” he said pointing to the needles in her body, “we just were running some tests on your DNA.”  
“Why?”  
“Like I said earlier, you are special and we just want to see the proof.”  
“Who is ‘we?’ Who do you work for?” Skye demanded.  
“You can meet her. Get dressed and you can see her.”   
A few minutes later Skye was being led through a garden courtyard by a man named Lincoln.   
“Where are we?”  
“No one really knows except for Gordon. But we call it Afterlife.” The walked in a comfortable silence until the were in front of a building. “I leave you here.” And then he was gone.  
Skye carefully walked into the well-lit room. “Hello?” Then she saw a woman looking out a window, her back turned. “Who are you?” Skye asked.  
“My name is Jiaying, and you are?”  
“My name is Skye.”  
“Skye, what a beautiful name.”  
“Thanks,” she said carefully, “why am I here? Why did you take me twenty-two years ago? Who do you work for?” Skye questioned.  
“You are here to fulfill your destiny. A destiny that was given to you twenty-two years ago. And I work to better the world.”  
“What destiny? What did you do to me?”  
“Take a walk with me,” Jiaying said taking Skye’s hand.  
They walked in a nervous silence for a while. At last, Jiaying said, “Twenty-three years ago, I was told I was pregnant. Just before my second trimester, I was taken. I was taken by a man named Daniel Whitehall. He cut me open, determined to find out what made me special. My mission, my duty to the world after that was to make a world where there could be peace between our two worlds.”  
“What are you talking about?”  
“Look around you.” Then Skye realized what was so odd about this place. Ordinary children playing, three feet off the ground. Children being levitated by Lincoln, who had electricity coming out of him. A woman, playing soccer against another team. Her team was made of copies of herself. Others, building things with their minds. People running at an inhuman speed.   
“What are you?” Skye breathed.  
“After Whitehall,” she continued, “I created this place, in hopes of creating a place where people like us could live. An army of Inhumans who could fight if a man like Daniel Whitehall ever came back. You see, some people are born with genetic markers. Markers that allow someone with the potential to be changed. But I wanted to create a serum that would allow anyone to become one of us. And I succeeded. I named her Daisy.”   
“Oh, my god. Gordon used to call me that.”  
“Welcome, home Daisy.”


End file.
